The precocious mind : the intellectual development of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Abstract

Charlotte Perkins Gilman embodied the innovative spirit of her age and country. She was not content to accept the roles that society had imposed upon her sex. As a true American revolutionary, Gilman defied expectations and worked tirelessly to improve the lives of others. Although she received only four years of formal education, Gilman adopted an ambitious course of reading that was influenced by her relatives, friends, and personal goals. Gilman decided at an early age that she wanted to help humanity. In order to do so successfully, she knew that she would have to learn about human nature, relations, history, and institutions. She also believed that fiction played a crucial role in shaping public attitudes. She wrote stories and poetry in order to show what was socially possible. In her autobiography, letters, school essays, and personal journals, Gilman illumines the works that influenced her intellectual development. These texts helped her to form sophisticated theories of history, religion, and human psychology. She retreated to the comforting presence of her books during times of stress and unhappiness. Gilman's well-being was tied to her ability to think, write, and read freely. During her first marriage to Charles Walter Stetson, Gilman suffered a debilitating nervous breakdown. Her ability to concentrate would never be the same after this mental trauma. Gilman's scholarly rigor as a young woman was crucial to her important work in later years. Biographers have not yet fully explored this vital part of Gilman's early life. Without a solid intellectual foundation from which to draw, Gilman would not have taken her rightful place among the great American minds.