Women Have Told: Studies in the Feminist Tradition.
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1930. First edition of this history of feminist literary tradition in the English language. Each chapter focuses on a key literary figure (Mary Wollestonecraft, the Brontës, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Rebecca West, and more). With five plates, including a frontispiece of Mary Wollestonecraft. Inscribed by the author, “To my good friend, Andrew McCauce / In memory of many happy hours spent among his books” (January 1930). With one TLS and one ALS laid in, both discussing the present work, from Wellington to McCauce (in Wellington’s letterhead envelope). A near fine copy in the near fine original dust jacket, with additional material laid in. Publisher’s purple cloth. In the original pink dust jacket printed in purple. Octavo. 204 pp. Item #17541
The two letters discuss Wellington’s writing of the present work, the positive reviews she received in the Boston Herald and other publications, and her friendship with Andrew McCauce (who, she writes, was the first to send her a letter her after the publication of the present work). In the TLS, she writes, “God knows how I managed to build that little book—chapter by chapter, sometimes not knowing whether I should ever be able to write the next…Already the next book is shaping up, and somehow I feel sure that it will be completed more quickly and easily than Women Have Told.” In the ALS, Wellington notes that the present work would “head the woman section” of the next edition of Charles and Mary Beards’ bibliography Rise of American Civilization. Amy Wellington was the editor of the magazine Current Opinion and a close friend of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She edited Gilman’s poetry and was an ardent promoter of her work. In an 1899 letter, Gilman praised Wellington’s “pure love and discipleship” toward her after Wellington helped secure funding for one of Gilman’s books. Women Have Told appears to be Wellington’s only published book, though she also published articles in Woman Citizen and other periodicals. We could not locate any information about Andrew McCauce, though the letters from Wellington imply that he was a Boston writer or editor, possibly for the Herald.
Hill, Mary A., editor. The Love Letters of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1995), pp. 296, 411.
Price: $250.00