The Essential Lectures of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 18901894 will fill one of the last remaining voids in the restoration of Gilmans oeuvre and is therefore to be heartily welcomed. It will be a boon to Gilman scholars as well as to scholars and students of postbellum American thought and culture.Frederick Wegener, editor of Edith Wharton: The Uncollected Critical Writings and editorial board member of the upcoming thirty-volume project The Complete Works of Edith Wharton.
This collection fills a void that currently exists in the recovery of Gilmans works. Ball correctly asserts that the genesis of many of Gilmans later sociological theories is located in her early lectures, which provide a solid foundation for the development of her social philosophies. The edition is a useful supplement to the existing Gilmanian corpus. Denise Knight, author of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of Short Fiction