EQUALITY

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1897. First Edition. Attractive copy of Bellamy's sequel to his best-selling utopian novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887. Bellamy "argues that economic equality is the cornerstone on which the complete life of an industrial democracy rests - political, intellectual, ethical" (Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 1-7). "Bellamy's new world was more than anything else an extension of the Constitution beyond its guarantee of political equality to guarantee an economic equality as well. Bellamy was not a revolutionary in insisting upon the need for equality in the things that people have: "Looking Backward and the whole system of society which it proposes is based upon equality and the material conditions of citizens, and stands or falls with that idea." Many today would say that this is not enough that there must be some guarantee of individual liberty as well, for all too often utopias have concentrated on the material aspects of human life, paid too little attention to the spiritual. Nevertheless, universal material well-being - the kind of equality that Bellamy called for - continues to appear to be a long step toward utopia" (Lewis, Utopian Literature, p.14). After Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben-Hur, Looking Backward was the third largest bestseller of the nineteenth century; the anticipation for its sequel was such that the first edition sold out within 36 hours. Issued in two binding variants, with two variant dustjackets printed to match the color of cloth. While not an impossibility in dustjacket, well-preserved survivals are scarce. BAL 967; Wright III, 459; Sargent, p.56; Reginald 01066. First Printing. Octavo (19.5cm); first binding in terracotta-colored cloth, with titling and decorative elements stamped in gilt and dark brown on spine and front cover; dustjacket; viii,412 + [8]pp ads. Gentle sunning to spine, touch of dust-soil to upper board edges, with a tiny tear at crown, and pin holes at upper front endpaper, preliminary blank, and title page; contents fresh, with hinges sound; Near Fine. In the original dustjacket, gently spine-sunned, with a few tiny tears at crown, and minute loss to heel and upper corner tips; a fresh, unrestored example - Near Fine. Housed in a custom clamshell case.