Looking Backward 2000-1887. [Together with:] Equality.
Boston: Ticknor and Company; New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1888 & 1897 Stock Code: 137673
Scarce pairing of Bellamy's utopian novels
First editions, first printings, of Bellamy's enormously popular Looking Backward 2000-1887 and its sequel Equality. First issue of Looking Backward with the misprint "wore" in line 8 on page 210 and the J. J. Arakelyan slug on the copyright page; Equality in the rare first-issue dust jacket. Looking Backward 2000-1887 established Bellamy's utopian themes of co-operation and brotherhood in an ideal socialist system, where clothes are recycled, jewels are worthless, and world communication has been simplified into a universal language. The work had an immediate political effect and contributed to the formation of numerous clubs across America campaigning for nationalisation of services. Equality expanded on these themes and a number of issues it was only able to treat briefly. Equality asserts in detail that "the establishment of economic equality did in fact mean incomparably more for women than for men" (p. 131), allowing them access to traditionally male-dominated trades, and freedom from the confines of 19th-century fashion.Description
Octavo. Original green cloth, titles to rounded spine and front cover in black, decorative vignette to spine and front cover in gilt. [Together with:] Octavo. Original pink cloth-backed boards, titles and frames to spine and front board in gilt and brown. With dust jacket.
Condition
[Looking Backward:] Slight rubbing to board edges, spot of wear to tips, light foxing to endpapers; a near-fine copy. [Equality:] Spine very lightly browned, tiny bumps to spine ends, two small marks to head of rear board, a few corners creased, tape repair to short closed tear at head of front free endpaper. A near-fine copy, the binding square and firm, occasional neat pencil annotations to margins, in the scarce, slightly soiled dust jacket, with minor loss to spine ends, not price-clipped.
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