Short Fiction Gilman, Charlotte Perkins: The Crux. v1 29 Dec 2014

[AlexBell]

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was mostly self-educated, but became a leading intellectual in the women's movement. She began a career as a public lecturer in 1890, wrote many poems, articles, short stories, and novels, and between 1909 and 1916 wrote, edited, and published The Forerunner, a monthly magazine. Her most famous book is The Yellow Wallpaper, (1892) written after a bout of post-partum depression. She was didactic in all her writings - 'In my opinion it is a pretty poor thing to write, to talk, without a purpose' - often with sardonic humour and always with compassion.

The Crux first appeared in volume 2 of The Forerunner in 1910, and was published in 1911. It has several themes, including women's right to choose and to develop their abilities, and their right to make informed decisions about venereal disease - 'if she was old enough to marry, to be a mother, she was surely old enough to know these things; and ... ought to know them'

'The text source was Project Gutenberg 38551-h.htm, checked against http://catalog.hathitrust.org/'Record/000544186. Perhaps because of Ms Gilman's prodigous output and lack of a proofreader there were some inconsistencies. I have silently corrected the inconsistencies and typos, curled quotes, and added scene breaks.

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