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==Early life==
Frederic Beecher Perkins was born in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], to Mary (Beecher) Perkins and [[Thomas Clap Perkins]]. He was the grandson of [[Lyman Beecher]], a [[Presbyterian]] minister best known as a revivalist and social reformer.<ref>{{Cite Appletons'|title=Perkins, Frederic Beecher|year=1888}}</ref> He was also the father of [[Charlotte Perkins Gilman]], a prominent American feminist, sociologist, novelist, and
In 1857, Frederic was married to Mary Fitch Wescott, and together they had two children, Thomas Adie in 1859 and Charlotte in 1860. After Charlotte's birth, a physician advised Perkins that his wife's life would be in danger if she were to bear any more children. Soon, Perkins would leave his family, where they remained in an impoverished state.<ref>Hill, Mary A. ''Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Making of a Radical Feminist, 1860-1896'' (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980)</ref> Charlotte would go on and described her father as a "stranger" and states that he was "distant and little known". Though Perkins had abandoned his family, Charlotte noted gratitude towards her father, recognizing that "...by heredity I owe him much; the Beecher urge to social service, the Beecher wit and gift of words and such small sense of art as I have." Charlotte also reflected that he "took to books as a duck to water. He read them, he wrote them, he edited them, he criticized them, he became a librarian and classified them. Before he married he knew nine languages and continued to learn more afterward…In those days, when scholarship could still cover a large portion of the world’s good books, he covered them well."<ref>Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. ''The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography''. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1935.</ref>
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