Wild
Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of The
Yellow Wall-Paper
In Wild
Unrest, Helen Lefkowitz
Horowitz offers a vivid portrait of Charlotte Perkins Gilman
in the 1880s, drawing new connections between the author's
life and work and illuminating the predicament of women then
and now.
 The Yellow
Wall-Paper captured
a woman's harrowing descent into madness and drew on the
author's intimate knowledge of mental illness. Like the narrator
of her story, Gilman was a victim of what was termed "neurasthenia" or "hysteria"—a "bad
case of the nerves." She had faced depressive episodes
since adolescence, and with the arrival of marriage and motherhood,
they deepened. In 1887 she suffered a severe breakdown and
sought the "rest cure" of famed neurologist S.
Weir Mitchell. Her marriage was a troubled one, and in the
years that followed she separated from and ultimately divorced
her husband. It was at this point, however, that Gilman embarked
on what would become an influential career as an author,
lecturer, and advocate for women's rights.
Horowitz draws on a treasure
trove of primary sources to illuminate the making of The
Yellow Wall-Paper:
Gilman's journals and letters, which closely track her daily
life and the reading that most influenced her; the voluminous
diaries of her husband, Walter Stetson, which contain verbatim
transcriptions of conversations with and letters from Charlotte;
and the published work of S. Weir Mitchell, whose rest cure
dominated the treatment of female "hysteria" in
late 19th century America. Horowitz argues that these sources
ultimately reveal that Gilman's great story emerged more
from emotions rooted in the confinement and tensions of her
unhappy marriage than from distress following Mitchell's
rest cure.
Wild Unrest adds immeasurably
to our understanding of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, uncovering
both the literary and personal sources behind The
Yellow Wall-Paper.
"A convincing, absorbing,
and perceptive book."—Publishers
Weekly
"Wild Unrest is enthralling.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a brilliant, passionate, self-divided
young American woman, prone to depression. Here is the powerful
story of how she became a great American—one who could find
both love and her life's work." —Catharine R. Stimpson,
New York University
"With brilliant psychological
and literary insight, Wild
Unrest probes the conflicts between love and work that
defined Charlotte Perkins Gilman's early adult life. The book
will forever change our understanding of Gilman's most disturbing,
and justly famous, work of fiction."—Elisabeth Israels
Perry, author of Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the
Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith
"An erudite, accessible,
and timely tale of an extraordinary woman, whose words and
deeds, in Horowitz's deft hands, lay bare the contours of passion,
power, suffering, and medicine in a critical chapter of American
life."—Andrea Tone,
Canada Research Chair in the Social History of Medicine
"An intelligent provocative
read."—Louise
Gleason, Worcester Women's History Project
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