Letter to Book Censorship Committee
822 Pepperidge Road
Westbury, NY 11590
3/21/1950
Mr. George Palmer Putnam
Founder and President, Penguin Group Censorship Committee
375 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014-3657
Dear Mr. George Palmer Putnam:
It has come to my attention that your renowned censorship committee has started to take the initiative, in prohibiting the publication of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. As a proactive member of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman Book Club, I earnestly believe that you are making a catastrophic error. Now I understand that the censorship committee refuses to publish The Yellow Wallpaper on the grounds that it, sheds a negative light on neurologist, Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell’s Rest Cure, it encourages young women not to adhere to medical treatment if suffering from hysteria, and finally it is developing a fear of women being distracted from traditional household duties to pursue interest outside the home. Although these claims may seem valid, do you truly feel that these reservations of Gilman’s piece are justified?
Five years ago our great nation led a sweeping victory in the Second World War. While we obtained a victory we also obtained knowledge of heinous human experiments and brutality conducted by the lurid Germans, on Jews who were kept in containment camps. These victimized Jews, coldly suffered considerable pain in complete clandestine silence. The same heinous brutality inflicted on the Jews is the same pain that patients of the “Rest Cure” suffer. Dr. Mitchell’s “Rest Cure” involves his patients being subjected to complete isolation from their friends and family, force feedings, electrotherapy, and complete restriction from talking, reading, writing and even sewing! How could a cure be just if it does not allow the patient to communicate its productivity or adversity? This does not sound like a cure. Mitchell’s rest cure reflects the splitting image of the heinous human experiments and brutality conducted by the lurid Germans! The Yellow Wallpaper does not shed negative light on the “Rest Cure”. It is the “Rest Cure” that sheds negative light on itself.
I am conscious that you fear that young women will not adhere to medical treatment if they suffer from hysteria. There is truly nothing to fear. Hysteria in lamest terms is a mental and nervous disorder deriving from intense anxiety. Recent studies have proven that hysteria is cured through relaxing recreational activities such as writing. So there is no grave need to send a young woman to an institution for intense medical care. Unfortunately, during the late 1800s, hysteria was used as a catchall diagnosis. Physicians misjudged their patient to suffer from hysteria than actual grave disorders like epilepsy. Hysteria is not a disorder that requires immediate medical attention.
The United States, indefinitely, is the best country in the world. We are obviously undefeatable. This nation did not come to be so great by its’ men remaining hunters in the wild and playing with rocks. The men of this blessed country stepped out of their traditional duties and became innovators, in order to make this nation great. These innovators led to the progression of our nation. Such innovators include Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, Peter Cooper, and Charles Lindbergh. While we continue to live in a male dominated society, Russia is racing to replace our nation as number 1. It is imperative that women are allowed to pursue interests outside the home, so that the United States can be a force to be reckoned with!
Mr. Putnam your committee’s reservations are invalid and unjust. Charlotte Perkins Gilman did not write to instill a fear in people or discredit Dr. Mitchell. She simply shed light on a group of people who figuratively and physically suffered in utter silence. If the general public is unaware of such suffering, than your committee is directly adding to similar suffering of woman leaving in this day and age. How can suffering be stopped if no one can acknowledge its occurrence? Please search deep into your heart and do the right thing. Publish Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novel, The Yellow Wallpaper!
Respectfully,
Djenane Lemaire
Member, Charlotte Perkins Gilman College Book Club
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