Fortnightly Book, October 11

This next week will, like the past week, be a busy grading week, so the next fortnight needs to be a shorter book and/or re-read; and it is both: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland. Herland was serialized in 1915 in The Forerunner, a magazine that Gilman produced, wrote, and edited herself every month for seven years. The purpose of the magazine was to further the progress of women by stimulating them to act for themselves. The magazine is summed up in an advertisement from volume 1, number 1:

THE FORERUNNER CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN'S MAGAZINE CHARLTON CO., 67 WALL ST., NEW YORK

AS TO PURPOSE:

What is The Forerunner? It is a monthly magazine, publishing stories short and serial, article and essay; drama, verse, satire and sermon; dialogue, fable and fantasy, comment and review. It is written entirely by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

What is it For? It is to stimulate thought: to arouse hope, courage and impatience; to offer practical suggestions and solutions, to voice the strong assurance of better living, here, now, in our own hands to make.

What is it about? It is about people, principles, and the questions of every-day life; the personal and public problems of to-day. It gives a clear, consistent view of human life and how to live it.

Is it a Woman's magazine? It will treat all three phases of our existence—male, female and human. It will discuss Man, in his true place in life; Woman, the Unknown Power; the Child, the most important citizen.

Is it a Socialist Magazine? It is a magazine for humanity, and humanity is social. It holds that Socialism, the economic theory, is part of our gradual Socialization, and that the duty of conscious humanity is to promote Socialization.

Why is it published? It is published to express ideas which need a special medium; and in the belief that there are enough persons interested in those ideas to justify the undertaking.

Herland is in genre a feminist utopia, a Lost World story, in fact, depicting a society composed entirely of women discovered by a small scientific expedition of which Lost World stories are so fond. As the expedition consists of three men, both sides find the discovery somewhat unexpected and challenging....