Denise D. Knight – författare

As the American literary canon has undergone revision and expansion in recent years, the influence of women writers of the nineteenth century has been reevaluated. The first book of its kind, this reference provides alphabetically arranged entries for more than 70 nineteenth-century American women writers, such as Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Emma Lazarus, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of the author's major works and themes, an overview of the critical studies examining the writer's works, and a bibliography of works for further consultation.The nineteenth century gave birth to some of the richest works in American literature. For decades, nineteenth-century authors such as Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman have been considered the dominant figures of the period, and other writers have received much less attention. But the scope and focus of American literary studies has shifted dramatically in recent years, and mainstream anthologies have been revised to reflect changes in the canon. One of the most exciting changes has been the reassessment of the contributions of American women writers of the nineteenth century. Some of these women, such as Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe, are fairly well known. Others, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, have been the subject of much recent critical attention. But despite the resurgence of interest in American women writers of the nineteenth century, resources for readers have remained widely scattered.This reference book is the first work of its kind to offer comprehensive entries on more than 70 American women writers who published during the nineteenth century. Featuring authors who have long been assimilated into the literary canon as well as once-popular writers who have largely been forgotten, this volume invites a critical reassessment of the contributions of these writers to American literary history. Entries are written by expert contributors and are arranged alphabetically to facilitate access. Each entry includes a biographical sketch, a discussion of the writer's major works and themes, an overview of the critical response to the writer, and a bibliography of works by and about the writer. To encourage additional research, the volume closes with a bibliography of significant studies of nineteenth-century American women writers.

Prominent American author, lecturer, and social reformer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) is best known for her 1898 treatise Women and Economics, which traced gender inequality to women’s economic dependence upon men, and for her 1892 short story ""The Yellow Wall-Paper,"" which depicts a woman’s descent into madness. However, she began her career as a poet. Her first authored book, a collection of verse entitled In This Our World, was issued in four different editions between 1893 and 1898. While virtually all of Gilman’s later poems appeared in her monthly magazine, The Forerunner (1909–1916), or in The Later Poetry of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1996), Gilman’s early verse has been largely inaccessible to modern readers, and dozens of her poems have never been collected. This volume, co-edited by Scharnhorst and Knight, includes all 149 poems in the 1898 edition of In This Our World as well as 79 vagrant poems that appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines. This critical volume features a comprehensive introduction, appendixes, and extensive notes. Gilman devotees and a new generation of readers will find this edition an indispensable resource.

Prominent American author, lecturer, and social reformer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) is best known for her 1898 treatise Women and Economics, which ascribed gender inequality to women’s economic dependence upon men, and for her 1892 short story "The Yellow Wall-Paper," which depicts a woman’s descent into madness. However, she began her career as a poet. Her first authored book, a collection of verse entitled In This Our World, was issued in four different editions between 1893 and 1898. While virtually all of Gilman’s later poems appeared in her monthly magazine, The Forerunner (1909–16), or in The Later Poetry of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1996), Gilman’s early verse has been largely inaccessible to modern readers, and dozens of her poems have never been collected. This volume, coedited by Scharnhorst and Knight, includes all 149 poems in the 1898 edition of In This Our World as well as 112 vagrant poems that appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines. This critical volume features a comprehensive introduction and extensive notes. Gilman devotees and a new generation of readers will find this edition an indispensable resource.

Considers Gilman’s place in American literary and social history by examining her relationships to other prominent intellectuals of her era

By placing Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the company of her contemporaries, this collection seeks to correct misunderstandings of the feminist writer and lecturer as an isolated radical. Gilman believed and preached that no life is ever led in isolation; indeed, the cornerstone of her philosophy was the idea that “humanity is a relation.”   Gilman''s highly public and combative stances as a critic and social activist brought her into contact and conflict with many of the major thinkers and writers of the period, including Mary Austin, Margaret Sanger, Ambrose Bierce, Grace Ellery Channing, Lester Ward, Inez Haynes Gillmore, William Randolph Hearst, Karen Horney, William Dean Howells, Catharine Beecher, George Bernard Shaw, and Owen Wister. Gilman wrote on subjects as wide ranging as birth control, eugenics, race, women''s rights and suffrage, psychology, Marxism, and literary aesthetics. Her many contributions to social, intellectual, and literary life at the turn of the 20th century raised the bar for future discourse, but at great personal and professional cost.