The Essential Lectures of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1890–1894
The Essential Lectures of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1890–1894
The first collection of lectures and sermons that Charlotte Perkins Gilman delivered in the first four years of her career
The last decades have seen a resurgence of interest in Charlotte Perkins Gilman, now considered among the most important thinkers in US history. She is best known for fiction—such as the classic short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892)—and nonfiction, including her manifesto Women and Economics (1898), a work of intersectional sociology avant la lettre. Nevertheless, as a young writer, Gilman made her living delivering lectures. One cannot know Gilman without some knowledge of this body of lectures; this book fills that critical gap in Gilman scholarship.
Since the recovery of Charlotte Perkins Gilman began in the late 1960s and continued with the republication of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” in the 1970s, her image in cultural memory has been increasingly celebrated. Andrew J. Ball presents here fifty previously unpublished texts. They trace the development of Gilman’s thoughts on diverse subjects like gender, education, labor, science, theology, and politics—forming an intellectual diary of her growth.
These lectures are not just a testament to Gilman’s personal evolution, but also a crucial contribution to the foundations of American sociology and philosophy. The Essential Lectures of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1890–1894 marks a historic moment, unveiling the hidden genius of Gilman's oratory legacy.
‘The Essential Lectures of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1890–1894 will fill one of the last remaining voids in the restoration of Gilman’s oeuvre and is therefore to be heartily welcomed. It will be a boon to Gilman scholars as well as to scholars and students of postbellum American thought and culture.’
—Frederick Wegener, editor of Edith Wharton: The Uncollected Critical Writings and editorial board member of the upcoming thirty-volume project The Complete Works of Edith Wharton.
This collection fills a void that currently exists in the recovery of Gilman’s works. Ball correctly asserts that the genesis of many of Gilman’s later sociological theories is located in her early lectures, which provide a solid foundation for the development of her social philosophies. The edition is a useful supplement to the existing Gilmanian corpus.’
—Denise Knight, author of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of Short Fiction
Andrew J. Ball is editor in chief of Screen Bodies: The Journal of Embodiment, Media Arts, and Technology. He is author of The Economy of Religion in American Literature: Culture and the Politics of Redemption.
