AUTHORESS' SUICIDE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22193, 21 August 1935, Page 11

AUTHORESS' SUICIDE

SUFFERER FROM CANCER NOTE JUSTIFYING ACTION (Received August 20, 5.45 p.m.) NEW YORK. Aug. 19 One of America's foremost women writers and lecturers, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Oilman, aged 75, committed suicide at Pasadena, California. The police state that Mrs. Gilman, who was suffering from cancer, used chloroform. Deceased left a note justifying suicide in her case. She said: " No grief, pain or misfortune is an excuse for cutting off one's life while any power of service remains, but when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of unavoidable death it is the siinplest # of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one."

The late Mrs. Gilman was born at Hartford, Connecticutt. She began her public work in 1890, lecturing on ethics, economics and sociology and writing on similar subjects. Also she wrote stories and poems. She was specially identified with Labour and women's movements. Mrs. Gilman was editress of the magazine The Forerunner 1909-16. She visited Europe as a public speaker in 1896, 1899, 1904, 1905 and 1913. Among Mrs. Gilman's publications are:—" Women and Economics." "Is This our World " (verse), " The Yellow Wallpaper." " Concerning Children." " The Home, its Work and Influence," " Human Work," " What Diantha Did," "The Man-Made World." " The Crux." " Moving the Mountain " and " His Religion and Hers." Deceased was twice married. Her first husband (in 1884) was Mr. C. W. Stetson, by whom she bad a daughter. Her second marriage, to Mr. George FT. Gilman, was solemnised in .Tune, 1900.