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1Herland

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

<i>Herland</i> is a utopian novel from 1915, written by feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The book describes an isolated society comprised entirely of Aryan women who reproduce via parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction). The result is an ideal social order, free of war, conflict and domination. It first appeared as a serial in Perkins' monthly magazine <i>Forerunner</i>. (Summary from Wikipedia)

2What Diantha Did

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman opens a window of history through which we can see a small part of the determined efforts made by women to elevate the circumstances of women in the early 20th century.<br /><br /> Diantha Bell is a normal young woman desiring marriage and a home, but also a challenging career in a new territory which raises many eyebrows and sets malicious tongues wagging. Her effort to elevate housework and cooking to a regulated and even scientific business, for the relief of homemakers, is a depiction of the late 19th century movement to promote Domestic Science, or Home Economics, as a means of providing more healthful home life, as well as career paths for women.<br /><br /> Diantha's business prospers as she shows her excellent gifts of administration, organization and homemaking. She grows an empire, and brings happiness and wholesomeness to every area of endeavor which she carefully attempts.<br />The improvements in women's opportunities have not been available very long, indeed.<br />This is a good reminder.

Moving the Mountain is a feminist utopian novel written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It was published serially in Perkins Gilman's periodical The Forerunner and then in book form, both in 1911. The book was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The novel was also the first volume in Gilman's utopian trilogy; it was followed by the famous Herland (1915) and its sequel, With Her in Ourland (1916). John Robertson, lost in Tibet for thirty years, is finally brought back to America by his sister Nellie, only to find his society completely transformed. (Summary by Wikipedia and Elizabeth Klett)

Third in the trilogy of the feminist classics, after <i>Moving the Mountain</i> and <i>Herland</i>. It was published serially in Perkins Gilman's periodical <i>The Forerunner</i>. In <i>Herland</i>, three American young men discover a country inhabited solely by women, who were parthenogenetic (asexual procreation), and had borne only girl children for two thousand years; they marry three of the women. Two of the men and one woman leave the country of Herland to return to America; Jeff Margrave remaining in Herland with his wife, Celis, a willing citizen; Terry O. Nicholson being expelled from Herland for bad conduct; and Ellador electing to leave Herland with her husband, Vandyck Jennings. We now continue the story, told from the viewpoint of Vandyck Jennings, as they return to America. (Summary from the text and by TriciaG)

5Stories of Symphonic Music

By Lawrence Gilman

'A guide to the meaning of important symphonies, overtures and tone-poems from Beethoven to the present day'. Gilman became notorious for scathing reviews of compositions later to become classics. Here he analyzes the stories behind some famous and not so famous works. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

6Suffrage Songs and Verses

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, one of the most prominent American suffragists, was not only known as an accomplished author of fiction and non-fiction, but also her poetry remains worth reading until today. - Summary by Carolin

In between "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) and <i>Herland</i> (1915), feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) wrote and published this delightful fictional autobiography, <i>Benigna Machiavelli</i> (1914), in her monthly magazine, <i>The Forerunner</i>. <br><br> The narrator, young Benigna MacAvelly, decides as a child that she intends to emulate her ancestor Niccolò Machiavelli but dedicate her machinations to doing good rather than evil. She starts her ingenious plotting very early in life (for example, as an 11-year-old, she enlists her classmates in an elaborate money-raising scheme to buy a new watch for an impoverished teacher), and moves on to larger goals as she gets older. Her most significant challenge is her domineering father. Determined to liberate her downtrodden mother from his verbal abuse, Benigna concocts an elaborate plan to deal with him and restore her mother's self-confidence. (Summary by Winnifred Assmann)

8Our Androcentric Culture, or the Man-Made World

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This is a book about men—as such. It differentiates between the human nature and the sex nature. It will not go so far as to allege man's masculine traits to be all that excuse, or explain his existence: but it will point out what are masculine traits as distinct from human ones, and what has been the effect on our human life of the unbridled dominance of one sex. (Taken from the first chapter)

9Crux

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"This story is, first, for young women to read; second, for young men to read; after that, for anybody who wants to. Anyone who doubts its facts and figures is referred to "Social Diseases and Marriage," by Dr. Prince Morrow, or to "Hygiene and Morality," by Miss Lavinia Dock, a trained nurse of long experience.<br><br> Some will hold that the painful facts disclosed are unfit for young girls to know. Young girls are precisely the ones who must know them, in order that they may protect themselves and their children to come. The time to know of danger is before it is too late to avoid it." From the Preface to The Crux.<br><br> A novel about the potential dangers of syphilis to one over-sheltered but rebellious young woman in 19th century America and the circle of friends who counsel her against making a disastrous marriage. - Summary by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Winnifred Assmann