LETTER: ALS to Mrs. GEC "Grace" Stetson.
Norwich, Conn.: Jan. 16, 1923. Four Page Letter from Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Mrs. G.E.C. "Grace" Stetson on the yellow letterhead of "The Forerunner / Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Magazine / Charlton Co., 67 Wall St.
New York," dated October 1, 1923, and signed "Charlotte the Futurist".
A Magnifier Over Perhaps Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Most Important Personal Relationship.
Two single 8-1/2 x 11 sheets, folded for mailing, together with holograph envelope addressed to "Mrs. G.E.C. Stetson / 520 E. 77th/New York/N.Y., with the hand-written return address of "C.P. Gilman /380 Washington St." and Norwich, Conn. printed, postmarked Jan. 16, 1923. Several closed tears at folds, else very good. An extraordinary intimate letter written to her closest friend, her first husband's second wife and stepmother to Charlotte's only child, Katharine, the author Grace Ellery Channing Stetson.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), "in her lifetime...the leading intellectual of the women's movement in the United States" [NAW] – reformer, lecturer, editor, philosopher, poet – is a formidable figure in the development of feminist thought and literature. Much has been made of her personal life, during her own lifetime and subsequently. Married to Walter Stetson in 1884, her daughter was born the following year. Her friendship with Grace pre-dated her marriage to Walter; in fact, their friendship started when they were girls living in Providence. Grace was the daughter of Dr. William F. Channing, the son of the famous Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing. When Charlotte suffered a severe post-partum depression after the birth of her child, it was in the Channing's home in Pasadena she sought refuge.
After she returned to her husband and child, Grace's letters provided much needed support. In 1888, Charlotte left Walter and moved to Pasadena with Grace and Katharine. Walter went to California somewhat later (in that time, Charlotte had written her feminist classic, THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER). By 1890, Charlotte and Walter had decided on divorce and Walter and Grace had decided on marriage.
When Grace moved back East with Walter, Charlotte sent her daughter to live with them. This unusual threesome continued their friendship until their deaths. Charlotte had lost the proximity of her closest friend, and that seems to have been the significance of this marriage. She writes to a friend, “Grace has left me." and "Grace Channing saved what there is of me.” And she wrote to Grace, “Do you know I think I suffer more in giving you up than in Walter – for you were all joy to me."
This letter shows the extreme intimacy of their relationship. Walter had died in 1911; Charlotte married again in 1900. After Walter's death, Charlotte and her husband Houghton moved to New York, next door to Grace. In 1922, Houghton's aunt died, leaving him and his brother her house in Norwich, as well as a small sum of money. On September 22, 1922, Charlotte and Houghton moved to Norwich. Three months after the move, she wrote this letter to Grace - full of her dreams of a house in California. As early as 1920, she had written Katharine about her plan to buy a place in California. This was never to be.
This letter, with references to her brother Thomas, and her attempt to make a home for him and his wife, Maggie, and their son, to be near her daughter and her family is particularly touching. The economics of her life are depressing. She had supported her mother most of her adult life. She continually sent money to her brother. And, as her daughter had married an impecunious artist, she supported her as well. Most of her income came from her lectures -- not from the sale of her books. She continued lecturing until the very end of her life.
"Charlotte the Futurist" wrote this letter on January 16, 1923. One week later, Century notified her that they had accepted HIS RELIGION AND HERS for publication. This was to be her last published philosophical work. But it is with gardening and making a home for her family that pre-occupies the woman here. Ann Lane in her biography of Gilman, "To Herland and Beyond" notes that "Charlotte was unable to sustain herself without constant small loans from Grace and from Dr. Channing” One wonders if this wasn't an oblique plea for another loan.
NAW II, pp. 39-41. Lane, To Herland and Beyond. Gilman, The Diaries of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Text of Letter:
The Forerunner / Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Magazine /Charlton Co., 67 Wall St., New York/ 16 - 1 -'23
Dear Grace:
Of course our plans are vague till about May - when this "will case" is to be settled I believe, and then we shall know whether we have quite a lot - and have to do here with it: or only a little - and can put it where we like. Meanwhile my brother shows signs of becoming rational - and speaks favorably of going to Cal.
My plan (or one of them) is this: To rent a furnished house on a place big enough for a fine garden & mews. Such as Katharine's would do admirably. Here would be Thomas Sr., Thomas Jr. & Maggie then to let Harold have room and board at a nominal rate - and let one room to a real boarder who'd pay regular rates. So "Hoganized" mews, according to Katherine's neighbors, give eggs and fowl to eat-a-plenty and average round $20 a month over. My garden - really worked - ought to furnish fruit - & vegetables.
Now suppose the Regular Boarder paid 14.00 and Hal 6.00 - (you see he'd earn a lot in gardening - that would be 20 a week; x 52 is $1040 plus the hen would 20 x 12 - makes quite an 1280 income. The Regular boarder might not stay during the summer! Or she might have two - and Hal have a tent house in the yard. Or if my brother gets any kind of work, needn't have any boarder.
You see I can borrow $1000 of Houghton. I should pay him interest on it! Investment in California real estate that would furnish the house (if I can't find one that is) and transport the family - set-'em up with their mews & their garden.
If they didn't earn a thing it wouldn't be much worse than more. You see if there were just Hal - at 6 a week - it would pay half the rent! And the rest of it is less than I pay now to carry them through the entire winter!
I'll see what your family says - if they are going there themselves that will alter it of course.
My sister in law wants a little bungalow of her own. She is greatly crippled with arthritis - (bears it magnificently!) and the one-floor should delight her. Thomas has had lungs & asthma -he'd do beautifully out there.
As for me, My House still looms large and lovely in the future.
I think Katharine likes to have Hal there in the mean time. He is always helpful. Your brother in law sounds alarming. I won't tell him anything - haven't anything to tell for that matter. My bottom proposition is the place for my folks & a more than willingness to have Harold with them. He would be there if my brother went off a mining; Maggie could do for him if he needed anything; and I think he would like the boy- & the boy him.
Heaven send you succeed in your mediating.
Moreover I can do nothing as to mine until I get there, to look over the ground. But if things can go along till then, I could get it going while there (perhaps even buy - if Houghton is willing! - or perhaps Clarence would buy!) and have'em all planted by the middle of March! - we'll see.
Much love to you dear -
From Charlotte the Futurist!
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