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.

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.

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.

[2][3] As a child, when she wasn't spending time with the family's horses, Knapp showed a strong interest in writing.

In 1835, Lyman Knapp arrived in Buffalo via Hudson and began working in the wholesale and retail grocery business.

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.

[4] In addition to working at the Advocate, Knapp also began attending school at the University at Buffalo, where she studied medicine.

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.

[4] In April 1891, Knapp met the writer Charlotte Perkins Stetson (later Gilman), who had separated from her husband and recently moved to California.

The editor of Gilman's diaries gives the following account of the breakup: In her autobiography, Gilman describes her breakup with "Dora" (as she refers to Knapp in the autobiography) in very harsh terms: 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.

It was, by this time, some six weeks since the bloodless anti-royalist coup which had deposed Queen Liliuokalani, and a visitor "would scarcely believe himself to be in the midst of riot and upheaval of the law.

They have no money, no arms, no leaders, and really no cause save their ancient traditions, which have so far lapsed, since the overthrow of the tabu, as to make no very powerful appeal to their national pride."

She was one of a thousand volunteer teachers known as the Thomasites who went to the Philippines aboard the ship U.S. Army Transport Thomas to teach in the new Filipino schools.

"Two Chums: Sketches from Life", which appeared in the San Francisco Call in August 1892, tells a melodramatic story of two young jute mill workers who die tragic deaths, one under the wheels of a streetcar, the other in sorrowful suicide for the loss of his friend.

[18] The series of articles garnered approval from The Woman's Column, a publication of the American Woman Suffrage Association: "Miss Adeline Knapp, one of the staff writers on the San Francisco Morning Call, has, through a series of graphic sketches published in that journal, aroused the public against the employment of children in the jute mills and factories of that city.

"[21] Her book Upland Pastures, published by Elbert Hubbard's Roycroft press in 1897, collected a small number of her nature sketches.

"Some of us hope to persuade certain of the women's clubs to take action in the matter", Knapp wrote, requesting Muir to write "a few lines on the subject" for an "article with interviews etc.

According to Gilman's biographer Cynthia Davis, "Delle vocally opposed Asian immigration and may have helped cultivate Charlotte's xenophobia.

"[23] As evidence, Davis cites a 1996 article in which Gary Scharnhorst critiqued the anti-Chinese perspective of Knapp's 1895 story, "The Ways That Are Dark",[24] which borrowed its title from a line in Bret Harte's poem, "The Heathen Chinee".

Whereas Harte, Scharnhorst claims, was treating anti-Chinese sentiment ironically, "Knapp endorsed the racist reading of 'Plain Language' in a crudely 'yellow peril' tale.

"[25] During the years Knapp spent with Gilman, anti-Chinese sentiment was strong in California; attempts to regulate the growing population had led to the passage of legislation restricting and deporting Asian immigrants, including the 1892 Geary Act upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1893.

[citation needed] On the other hand, Knapp clearly admired the Japanese writer Yone Noguchi, and wrote several articles supporting and publicizing his work.

Among the inhabitants before the arrival of the Spanish, Knapp briefly mentioned two "wild tribes", the Negritos and Igorotes, whom she distinguished from the "civilized Filipino people" who were members of the Malay race.

[31] The Association remained active in producing pamphlets and publications explaining their views of women's suffrage, until the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1920.

To support her newfound stand on the issue, she drafted "An Open Letter to Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,"[28] that was printed by the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, questioning whether women actually needed "the ballot", or the right to vote.