In October 1885, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her daughter moved in with Channing and her family in Southern California when she was going through marriage troubles. During the winter of 1887 to 1888, Gilman and Channing moved back east and lived together. From 1890 to 1893, Channing visited Augusta Senter and traveled around Italy and Germany. In 1894, Soon after the divorce from Gilman, Channing married Charles Walter Stetson. Channing was good friends with Gilman, and the three continued to have good relations after the divorce and marriage. Stetson and Gilman's daughter, Katherine went to live with Channing and Stetson when she was 9. In 1897 and 1898, Channing along with Stetson traveled around England, Italy, and Germany. They returned to Boston afterward. In April 1902, they moved permanently to Rome. Their friends in Rome included Elihu Vedder, , and Franklin Simmons. After the death of Stetson in 1911, Channing returned to the United States. From 1918 to 1936, Channing lived in New York in poor health and poverty until her death.
Career
Channing began her career as a writer by editing her grandfather's memoirs, Dr. Channing's Notebook. She became an associate editor of The Land of Sunshine, and in her tenure as a writer and poet contributor to the publication, advocated for an increased reliance on Mediterranean practices for Los Angelenos. This included embracing the sun instead of avoiding it, eating lighter food, and taking in wine and afternoon naps. Channing attempted to create a calendar featuring the artwork of Stetson and excerpts from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Although his feelings about Channing and her work were friendly and positive, he did not approve of the use of his work in this calendar and the calendar was never produced. Her poetry and other writing was influenced by three years in Italy in the early 1890s and by her time living in Southern California. During this time in Italy, she wrote the articles "What lessons Rome can teach us," and "Florence of the English poets" to describe Italy for an American audience. Many of her stories were featured in Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Saturday Evening Post. These stories were "didactic and dramatic portraits of women who found happiness in self-sacrificing love for and dependence on good men, or who nobly endured the weakness of their partners and lived and suffered happily ever after." Her works included The Sister of a Saint, The Fortune of a Day, and Sea Drift. When Channing lived in Rome in the early 1900s, she helped edit and compile Elihu Vedder's autobiography in exchange for financial support. After the death of her husband, Channing put together a traveling exhibit of Charles Walter Stetson's paintings but she was unable to sell his works, as his style of painting had fallen out of fashion. In 1916, Channing was a war correspondent on the French and Italian fronts. The stories and poetry she wrote at this time were very conservative and critical of exemption from military service, encouraging the war effort and often idealizing the sacrifice of the wives and mothers of enlisted men. She admired Mussolini and was disappointed in Woodrow Wilson's peace solution.
