In This Our World, with In This Our World And Other Poems.
Rare First Book,
Bound With The Second Edition, Signed,
Additionally Inscribed By Lester F. Ward
[Gilman] Stetson, Charlotte Perkins. In This Our World. Poems. Bound in With In This Our World And Other Poems. Oakland, Cal.: McCombs & Vaughn, 1893; San Francisco: James H. Barry and John B. Marble, Publishers, 1895.
16mo., 119 and 184pp; binding dry, with splitting along the first title page; two loose leaves taped in; occasional pencil notations; clipped half-tone portrait of Charlotte Perkins Stetson tipped in at second title page; both volumes bound in contemporary dark maroon cloth with gold lettering at the spine; original front wrappers present; recipient’s ownership signature at first wrapper cover: “M.J. Savage/Jan. '95” - and again, below the author’s name, “Maxwell Savage”; pencil signature, “M.J. Savage” across second wrapper and his ink signature above the author’s name; small 1/2” x 1/4” chip lacking at upper foretip of second front wrapper; mild wear to lower tips. In acustom-made cloth case.
First edition. At the front blank of the latter volume is inscribed, To the/Rev. M.J. Savage/From/Lester F. Ward; a line has been drawn to set off a second inscription, by the author: Charlotte Perkins Stetson/Jan. 1896/Elm St. Settlement/Chicago. In addition, the writer signed her name in full beneath the frontis portrait of herself. The presence of the front wrappers is significant. This is the single instance that Charlotte provided the cover design for one of her books.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson established herself as a writer when “The Yellow Wall-Paper” first appeared in the January issue of The New England Magazine (1892). By that date, Charlotte and her first husband, artist Charles Walter Stetson, had separated and decided to divorce. Though shaken by the lurid attention recorded the divorce by the press, Charlotte quickly sought out the new directions she wished her life to take. She began to write more seriously, verse as well as fiction; and, she started to lecture, evolving her ideas regarding women, labor and social organizations. In late 1893 she had her first book printed at a cost of $50.00—a volume of her feminist poems, some 75. She designed the cover herself, creating a visual allusion to Three Dreams In A Desert by Olive Schreiner, one of Charlotte’s favorite writers. (Charlotte described Dreams as “a book which will live for centuries, both for the breadth and splendor of its thoughts and for the powerful beauty of expression...”) When she received the printed copies on a November Saturday, she wrote: “My book begins to come in. looks fine. 124 pages. About 5-1/2 x 6-1/2 paper cover. 150 copies. Cost me selling at 25 cts.” Though its publication was obscure, the book received thoughtful notice from Alice Stone Blackwell (in The Woman’s Journal which had been publishing Stetson’s poetry for nearly a decade), Ambrose Bierce (for the San Francisco Examiner), and Henry Norman (for the London Chronicle). All copies of the book soon disappeared—after all only 150 had been printed. A friend persuaded a London publisher to bring out an edition there; favorably reviewed, and more widely circulated, the edition did much to advance Charlotte’s reputation. Charlotte was sufficiently encouraged to bring out a second, enlarged edition with 46 more poems. This edition also had a fleeting life—as once again the book was printed with paper wrappers in small numbers, and by a local California press. It is only slightly less a rarity than its predecessor.
While organizing and attending the 1895 California Woman’s Congress, she met and became friends with Jane Addams. Her personal life continued to be subject to upheavals, so Charlotte decided to accept Addams' invitation to visit Chicago. She spent the fall and winter of 1895 at Hull House, gaining much-needed breathing space. When her friend Helen Campbell moved to the city to serve at a social settlement in Chicago’s “Little Hell,” Charlotte
Print Inquire