diff --git a/AUTHORS.rst b/AUTHORS.rst
index a4b2411b..658f0b96 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.rst
+++ b/AUTHORS.rst
@@ -98,3 +98,4 @@ Patches and Suggestions
 - Shivaram Lingamneni
 - Miguel Turner
 - Rohan Jain (crodjer)
+- Justin Barber <barber.justin@gmail.com>
diff --git a/docs/user/quickstart.rst b/docs/user/quickstart.rst
index 62316309..bdb6635c 100644
--- a/docs/user/quickstart.rst
+++ b/docs/user/quickstart.rst
@@ -222,6 +222,34 @@ Setting filename explicitly::
       "data": ""
     }
 
+Sending strings to be received as files::
+
+    >>> url = 'http://httpbin.org/post'
+    >>> files = {'file': ('report.csv', 'some,data,to,send\nanother,row,to,send\n')} 
+
+    >>> r = requests.post(url, files=files)
+    >>> r.text
+    {
+      "origin": "179.13.100.4",
+      "files": {
+        "file": "some,data,to,send\\nanother,row,to,send\\n"
+      },
+      "form": {},
+      "url": "http://httpbin.org/post",
+      "args": {},
+      "headers": {
+         "Content-Length": "216",
+         "Accept-Encoding": "identity, deflate, compress, gzip",
+         "Connection": "keep-alive",
+         "Accept": "*/*",
+         "User-Agent": "python-requests/0.11.1",
+         "Host": "httpbin.org", 
+         "Content-Type": "multipart/form-data; boundary=127.0.0.1.502.41433.1335385481.788.1"
+      }, 
+      "json": null,
+      "data": ""
+    }
+
 
 Response Status Codes
 ---------------------
diff --git a/requests/models.py b/requests/models.py
index 1d6aa77a..4447be54 100644
--- a/requests/models.py
+++ b/requests/models.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ from .utils import (
     DEFAULT_CA_BUNDLE_PATH)
 from .compat import (
     cookielib, urlparse, urlunparse, urljoin, urlsplit, urlencode, str, bytes,
-    is_py2)
+    StringIO, is_py2)
 
 # Import chardet if it is available.
 try:
@@ -349,6 +349,8 @@ class Request(object):
             else:
                 fn = guess_filename(v) or k
                 fp = v
+            if isinstance(fp, (bytes, str)):
+                fp = StringIO(fp)
             fields.update({k: (fn, fp.read())})
 
         (body, content_type) = encode_multipart_formdata(fields)
diff --git a/tests/test_requests.py b/tests/test_requests.py
index 71967bb3..530008a3 100755
--- a/tests/test_requests.py
+++ b/tests/test_requests.py
@@ -329,6 +329,37 @@ class RequestsTestSuite(TestSetup, TestBaseMixin, unittest.TestCase):
 
             self.assertEqual(post2.status_code, 200)
 
+    def test_POSTBIN_GET_POST_FILES_STRINGS(self):
+
+        for service in SERVICES:
+
+            url = service('post')
+
+            post1 = post(url, files={'fname.txt': 'fdata'})
+            self.assertEqual(post1.status_code, 200)
+
+            post2 = post(url, files={'fname.txt': 'fdata', 'fname2.txt':'more fdata'})
+            self.assertEqual(post2.status_code, 200)
+
+            post3 = post(url, files={'fname.txt': 'fdata', 'fname2.txt':open(__file__,'rb')})
+            self.assertEqual(post3.status_code, 200)
+
+            post4 = post(url, files={'fname.txt': 'fdata'})
+            self.assertEqual(post4.status_code, 200)
+
+            post5 = post(url, files={'file': ('file.txt', 'more fdata')})
+            self.assertEqual(post5.status_code, 200)
+
+            post6 = post(url, files={'fname.txt': '\xe9'})
+            self.assertEqual(post6.status_code, 200)
+
+            post7 = post(url, files={'fname.txt': 'fdata to verify'})
+            rbody = json.loads(post7.text)
+            self.assertTrue(rbody.get('files', None))
+            self.assertTrue(rbody['files'].get('fname.txt'), None)
+            self.assertEqual(rbody['files']['fname.txt'], 'fdata to verify')
+
+
     def test_nonzero_evaluation(self):
 
         for service in SERVICES: