The Forerunner

"Should we not laugh to see a horse in corsets? The time is coming when we shall so laugh to see a woman." - The Forerunner Volume 1 (1909-1910) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

In this anthology collection of key writings by prominent humanitarian and pro-equality writer, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the reader is afforded a fascinating insight into the lives and societal challenges of women in the early 20th century.

Through a selection of expertly written poems, essays, and fictional stories as well as non-fiction narratives, the monthly magazine excerpts include lesser-known works such as ‘Our Androcentric Culture; or, The Man-Made World’, the poem ‘Then This’, and an essay entitled ‘A Small God And a Large Goddess’.

The original writing showcases a progressive thinker with a strong female voice, who was ahead of her time in terms of feminism and women’s rights, in this selection of politically-inspired pieces from 1909.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, also known as Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was born on 3rd July 1860 in Connecticut, USA. Her early family life was troubled, with her father abandoning his wife and family; a move which strongly influenced her feminist political leanings and advocator of women’s rights.

After working as a tutor and painter, Perkins – a self-declared humanist and tomboy – began to work as a writer of short stories, novels, non-fiction pieces, and poetry. Her best-known work is her semi-autobiographical short story, inspired by her post-natal depression, entitled ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, which was published in 1892 and made into a film in 2011.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a member of the American National Women's Hall of Fame and strongly believed that "the domestic environment oppressed women through the patriarchal beliefs upheld by society". A believer in euthanasia, she was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer in January 1932 and subsequently took her own life in August 1935, writing in her suicide note that she "chose chloroform over cancer".