daughter died a month earlier. In a cupboard, Mitchell found the shawl the girl had been wearing; it had not been worn out that night. A 2011 study determined that the ghost story was likely originally told by Mitchell himself as entertainment at a medical meeting, then took on a life of its own. In his 1910 book "Characteristics," Mitchell wrote about a man who told a story "about a little dead child who rang up a doctor one night, and took him to see her dying mother;" the man was then constantly bothered by believers and disbelievers, and unable to stop the story. In context, it seems that Mitchell was referring to himself. "The Yellow Wallpaper" Charlotte Perkins Gilman claimed her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" was directed at Mitchell that he might reconsider the rest cure. Although she has claimed to have sent a copy of the story, Mitchell never acknowledged his connection to the infamous story or that he ever received a copy. Perkins Gilman also claimed that Mitchell altered his Rest Cure treatment after reading "The Yellow Wallpaper," but there is no evidence that Mitchell ever changed or altered the Rest Cure. References Further reading Anna Robeson Brown Burr, Weir Mitchell: His Life and Letters (Duffield & Company 1929). Nancy Cervetti, S. Weir Mitchell, 1829–1914: Philadelphia's Literary Physician. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012. E. P. Oberholtzer, "Personal Memories of Weir Mitchell," in the Bookman, vol. 39 (1914). p. 132 A. Proust and G. Ballet, The Treatment of Neurasthenia. 1902. Tucker, Beverly R., S. Weir Mitchell. Gorham Press, Boston, 1914. Talcott Williams, "Dr. S. Weir Mitchell" in the Century Magazine, vol. 57 (1898). Talcott Williams, in several articles in the Book News Monthly, vol. 26 (1907). A Catalogue of the Scientific and Literary Work of S. Weir Mitchell. Philadelphia, 1894. External links Finding aid to the S. Weir Mitchell collection at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries Silas Weir Mitchell. Biography at WhoNamedIt Silas Weir Mitchell papers from the Historic Psychiatry Collection, Menninger Archives, Kansas Historical Society Works by Silas Weir Mitchell in the Ball State University Digital Media Repository Portrait of Silas Weir Mitchell by John Singer Sargent S. Weir Mitchell Award of the American Academy of Neurology Sources 1829 births 1914 deaths 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American physicians American male non-fiction writers American medical writers American neurologists Burials at The Woodlands Cemetery