Human Work.

New York: McClure, Phillips & Co.,, 1904. A significant work of early 20th-century American feminism First edition, first printing. This groundbreaking analysis of economic activity in relation to gender equality argues that society is inherently stymied by the subjugation of women. It emphasises the need for women's liberation from the domestic sphere and the importance of female contributions to public and professional life. Gilman had a paradoxical relationship with Human Work describing it as "the greatest book I have ever done, and the poorest - that is, the least adequately done" (Lane, p. 275). She continued to revise it throughout her life, writing four drafts in total; however, this remains the sole lifetime edition. "Despite its flaws, Human Work represented Charlotte's most ardent annunciation of her personal philosophy, her strongest case for rejecting what she called the 'Ego Concept' and for embracing the 'Social Passion', and her most explicit equation of living with doing and doing with 'all virtue, joy, and growth'" (Davis, p. 263). The original cloth binding for Human Work appears with two variant imprints at the foot of the spine: either McClure, Philips & Co. (as here) or Doubleday, Page & Co. In 1897, Frank Nelson Doubleday founded Doubleday & McClure Co. with magazine publishers Samuel McClure and John Sanborn Phillips. However, Doubleday and McClure's partnership only lasted three years, and in 1900 the company partnered with Walter Hines Page to become Doubleday, Page & Co. Provenance: from the library of the Twentieth Century Club, Detroit, a women's cultural and social club active from 1902 to 1933. The club campaigned on local and political issues such as educational reform and child welfare. Their bookplate is affixed to the front pastedown and their ownership stamp appears on the front free endpaper, title page, and pages 203, 263, and 349; "Philosophy and Science" is written in ink to front free endpaper, presumably by a clerk of the club. Octavo. Original brown cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, top edge brown. A touch of wear to spine ends and corners, cloth clean, gilt bright, front free endpaper torn at gutter but holding, occasional thumb marks to contents and nicks to page extremities, else contents clean: a very good copy. Cynthia Davis, Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Biography, 2010; Ann J. Lane, ed., The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography, 1991.