# Is "Women and Economics" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (credited as Charlotte Perkins Stetson) a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Women and Economics by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (credited as Charlotte Perkins Stetson) (Small, Maynard & Company, 1898) is identified by: First edition, first printing, collates vii, [1], 340 pp., published in Boston two years after Stetson served as a California delegate to the 1896 International Socialist and Labor Congress in London.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first printing, collates vii, [1], 340 pp., published in Boston two years after Stetson served as a California delegate to the 1896 International Socialist and Labor Congress in London
- Bound in brick-red cloth with a printed paper title label on the spine rather than stamped lettering
- The author is credited on the title page as "Charlotte Perkins Stetson" — her married name at the time of composition — not "Gilman," since she did not take the name Gilman until her 1900 remarriage to George Houghton Gilman
- Publisher imprint reads Small, Maynard & Company
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charlotte Perkins Gilman (credited as Charlotte Perkins Stetson) |
| Publisher | Small, Maynard & Company |
| Year | 1898 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing, collates vii, [1], 340 pp., published in Boston two years after Stetson served as a California delegate to… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, first printing, collates vii, [1], 340 pp., published in Boston two years after Stetson served as a California delegate to the 1896 International Socialist and Labor Congress in London. Bound in brick-red cloth with a printed paper title label on the spine rather than stamped lettering. The author is credited on the title page as "Charlotte Perkins Stetson" — her married name at the time of composition — not "Gilman," since she did not take the name Gilman until her 1900 remarriage to George Houghton Gilman.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later reprintings and 20th-century academic reissues (including the standard modern paperback text) credit the author as "Charlotte Perkins Gilman" on the title page or cover, which the true 1898 first could not have done.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Women and Economics* by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (credited as Charlotte Perkins Stetson) a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/women-and-economics
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.