William Dean Howells, a prominent
author and critic who became an
ardent fan of Charlotte's work,
sent the story to his friend,
Horace E. Scudder, for publication in The Atlantic Monthly.
“It was not intended
to drive people crazy
but to save people
from being driven
crazy, and it worked.”
Gilman, The Forerunner 1913
Courtesy Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library
Letter of rejection from the editor of
The Atlantic Monthly, 1890
Scudder rejected the piece outright. Instead,
“The Yellow Wall-Paper” was published more
than a year after it was written, in The New
England Magazine, in January 1892. Readers
were intrigued and disturbed. In a letter to the
editor, a respondent signing off only as “M. D.” described the piece as sensational and morbidly fascinating, and questioned if such literature
should even be permitted in print.
Courtesy Schlesinger Library,
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
Charlotte reading in her library,
ca. 1900
Charlotte argued that the story was
beneficial, not dangerous, and suggested
the letter must have been written by a physician, (an M.D.), who only criticized
the tale because of its negative
representation of the medical profession.
“Perilous Stuff”
Reader's response, 1892
Courtesy Schlesinger Library,
Radcliffe Institute,
Harvard University
“Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow
Wallpaper’,” The Forerunner,
Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
October 1913
Courtesy Schlesinger Library,
Radcliffe Institute,
Harvard University
“Perilous Stuff,”
Boston Evening Transcript,
April 8, 1892
