In This Our World and Other Poems.
[Gilman, Charlotte Perkins]. Stetson, Charlotte Perkins. In This Our World and Other Poems. San Francisco: Barry and Marble, 1895.
Small 8vo.; endpapers foxed; green cloth, stamped in gilt; very minor wear to extremities; a beautiful copy. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First expanded edition of Gilman’s first book of poetry, a work with a complicated bibliographical history. In This Our World was first printed in San Francisco in 1893 by subscription by “two of her Socialist friends.” The English edition appeared two years later, and later that same year a revised American edition was published, adding 46 poems. The volume “enhanced appreciably her budding reputation,” and prominent critics offered praise. Upon publication William Dean Howells wrote to Perkins that it contained “the wittiest and wisest things that have been written this many a long day and year…you speak with a tongue like a two-edged sword. I rejoice in your gift” (To “Herland” and Beyond, by Ann J. Lane, NY: Random House, 1990, p, 145). Perkins herself felt the volume was the crowning achievement of her early literary career.
(#1228)
Print Inquire
