Adeline E. "Delle" Knapp (March 14, 1860 – June 6, 1909) was an American journalist, author, social activist, environmentalist and educator, who is today remembered largely for her relationship with Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which was likely romantic. In her lifetime, Knapp was known as a fixture of the turn-of-the-century San Francisco Bay Area literary scene. An outspoken writer who often addressed controversial topics in her columns for The San Francisco Call, Knapp wrote on a wide range of subjects from livestock to the Annexation of Hawaii.
Though often drawn to progressive causes like child labor and conservation, Knapp also tended to espouse reactionary views, as evidenced by her Anti-Chinese sentiments and criticisms of the women's suffrage movement. At a time when many American women were joining the movement to extend political and voting rights to women, Knapp spoke in state senate hearings in New York expressing doubts about the benefits of suffrage to women, and she allowed her speeches and letters on the topic to be used as propaganda by the anti-suffragism movement. Knapp was also the author of numerous short stories, as well as a novel set in the Arizona desert—works reflecting her enthusiasm for outdoor recreation, keen intellect, and interest in Western regionalism. These works, though praised in her lifetime, today have few readers among enthusiasts of Western fiction.
Early years Adeline Knapp was born on March 14, 1860, in Buffalo, New York, to Lyman and Adeline (née Maxwell) Knapp.1860 Census: Buffalo Ward 2, Erie, New York; Roll M653_745; Page: 257; Image: 257; Family History Library Film: 803745. She was one of nine children born to this family. Knapp was named after her mother, Adeline. In order to distinguish between the two women, Knapp was given the nickname of Dellie, which was used during her childhood. Throughout her adult life, though, she was known simply as "Delle" to her family and friends.Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Year: 1880; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll 831; Family History Film: 1254831; Page: 258A; Enumeration District: 166; Image: 0522.Gilman, Charlotte Perkins and Denise D. Knight. The Diaries of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The New England Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 1 (Mar., 1997), pp. 134–138.
As a child, when she wasn't spending time with the family's horses, Knapp showed a strong interest in writing. When she was eight years old, she wrote short poems and stories to entertain her friends. When she was 14 years of age, she published a volume of her writing. She also published her own four-page, 12-column newspaper, entitled The Queen City Enterprise. As a monthly newspaper, it flourished for nearly two years and gave her the first taste of life in journalism. She continued on while publishing the Aspirant in Buffalo and became widely known as a poet. In 1877, she became a member of the National Amateur Press Association. While she often expressed an interest to one day pursue a career in medicine, it was also thought by her family that she would most likely end up pursuing a career in journalism.The Evening Telegram, St. John's, Newfoundland, October 25, 1892. Vol. 14. No. 229. p. 2
While Knapp's mother had never worked outside of the home, her father, Lyman Knapp, was highly respected in the Buffalo community. In 1835, Lyman Knapp arrived in Buffalo via Hudson and began working in the wholesale and retail grocery business. After a few years, he became a partner in a distilling business. For years, he was a senior member of the brokerage firm of Knapp & Gillett. For several years, he was also Chief Engineer with the Volunteer Fire Department. And finally, he was active in founding the Fireman's Benevolent Association, and assisted in organizing the first Water Works Company. The family was considerably financially secure.Internal Revenue Assessment Lists for New York and New Jersey, 1862–1866; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M603, 217 rolls); Records of the Internal Revenue Service, Record Group 58; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Knapp's parents instilled a strong work ethic in the lives of their children. By the age of 17, while continuing to live at the family home with her parents, Knapp reportedly felt compelled to begin making her own way in life. She sought employment and soon started working in a large mercantile house. For seven years, she set aside her journalistic pursuits. However, at the age of 24, she began working as an associate editor at the Buffalo Christian Advocate.
In addition to working at the Advocate, Knapp also began attending school at the University at Buffalo, where she studied medicine. Her educational career lasted for three years, before she made the decision to leave Buffalo and head for California.
Life in California
In 1887, Knapp left Buffalo for San Francisco, taking a position on staff at the San Francisco Call, where she founded the paper's Woman's Department, which became very popular.
While she continued her work with the Call, within a year after her arrival in California, Knapp purchased the weekly Alameda County Express and began the life of a country editor and publisher. In this capacity, she performed the duties of the editor, business manager, solicitor, subscription and advertising agent, proofreader, collector and mailing clerk, and delivery. After a year and a half, she merged the Express with the Oakland Daily Tribune.
After the Express was consolidated with the Tribune, she began serving the Call as the staff coast and foreign exchange editor. However, when her background and knowledge regarding horses and cattle were discovered, she was transferred to the livestock department. Under the pen name of Miss Russell, she contributed a weekly Sunday article on the subject of horses and cattle, while she also wrote a story on a variety of subjects under her own name.
Knapp soon established herself as an important member of the San Francisco Bay Area literary community, particularly its East Bay contingent, which also included Joaquin Miller, Edwin Markham, Ina Coolbrith, Charles Keeler, and Yone Noguchi.Brayley, Arthur Wellington, Joe Mitchell Chapple, Arthur Wilson Tarbell. National Magazine. Boston, Massachusetts: Chapple Publishing Company, Ltd., Vol. XXXV. Page 252. 1912. She served as chair to the Program Committee of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association.
It was during her time in the Bay Area that her interest in women's issues began to take root. Much of her personal time was spent working with the San Francisco Woman's Educational and Industrial Union, which was a prominent organization that advocated for woman's suffrage. They counted a membership between 600 and 700 women in San Francisco. For approximately ten years, she was a strong advocate for women in business, female suffrage, and equality of the sexes. However, her ideals would change around the turn of the 20th century.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
In April 1891, Knapp met the writer Charlotte Perkins Stetson (later Gilman), who had separated from her husband and recently moved to California. The two women soon became close friends, and in September, they began living together at 673 Grove Street.
Gilman wrote about Knapp in her autobiography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, that "the pleasure in the new relation is that I now have some one to love me, and whom I love."
"It is possible, but not certain, that Charlotte and Delle were lovers", writes Gilman's biographer Ann Lane. The most explicit evidence that they were, comes from Stetson's letter to her future husband:
Adeline Knapp has (I suppose she has) letters of mine most fully owning the really passionate love I had for her. I told you that I loved her that way. You ought to know that there is a possibility of such letters being dragged out some day. Fancy San Francisco papers with a Profound Sensation in Literary Articles! Revelations of a Peculiar Past! Mrs. Stetson's Love Affair with a Woman. Is this Friendship! and so on.Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (author), Ann J. Lane (Introduction), Zona Gale (Foreword). The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography. New York and London: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1935; NY: Arno Press, 1972; and Harper & Row, 1975. Lane, Ann J., To Herland and Beyond: The Life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. New York: Pantheon, 1990. p. 166;
By 1893, the relationship had become acrimonious. The editor of Gilman's diaries gives the following account of the breakup: Although Charlotte was "absurdly glad to see" Delle when she returned to Oakland on April 5, their relationship was in jeopardy. On May 3 Charlotte wrote: "Trouble with Delle over the years—and other things." May 11: "All along lately hard times with Delle. Am to [sic] exhausted to attend committee meeting to arrange constitution for State Council of Women. Delle goes without me. ... Dreadful time with Delle." And the next day: "Home utterly exhausted—scene with Delle all the way up from ferry to house, in the car." By May 14 they had decided to part company: Delle "decides to leave the house. I have so desired since last August—and often asked her to." Delle remained, however, for another two months, and it was July before she packed her belongings.Knight, Denise (editor) The Abridged Diaries of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. p. 525;
In her autobiography, Gilman describes her breakup with "Dora" (as she refers to Knapp in the autobiography) in very harsh terms: Harder than everything else to me was the utter loss of the friend with whom I had sincerely hoped to live continually. She certainly did love me. At first anyway. And had been most generously kind with money. My return was mainly in service, not only in making a home for her, but in furnishing material for her work. She was a clever writer, and later I learned that she was one of those literary vampires who fasten themselves on one author or another with ardent devotion, and for the time being write like them. The kindest thing I can say of her character is that she had had an abscess at the base of the brain, and perhaps it had affected her moral sense. I do not mean to describe her as 'immoral' in its usual meaning; she was malevolent. She lied so freely as to contradict herself in the course of a conversation, apparently not knowing it. She drank. I saw her drunk at my table. She swore freely at me, as well as others. She lifted her hand to strike me in one of her tempers, but that was a small matter. What did matter was the subtle spreading of slanders about me, which I cannot legally prove to have come from her, but which were of such a nature that only one so close could have asserted such knowledge. Also, I do know of similar mischief-making from her in regard to others. At any rate that solace ended not only in pain but in shame—that I should have been so gullible, so ignorant, as to love her dearly. So, the New Year's inscription for 1893 is a doleful one. ...Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (author), Ann J. Lane (Introduction), Zona Gale (Foreword). The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography. New York and London: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1935; NY: Arno Press, 1972; and Harper & Row, 1975. p. 143-144;
International activities In the early 1890s, Knapp's coverage of horses and cattle gave way to greater responsibilities as she took over the investigative reporting of international events. In 1893, she traveled to Hawaii to cover the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, where she was "probably the first woman to represent a newspaper in such a crisis."