Search Results: Utopian Thought from Lorne Bair Rare Books

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817. Third Edition. Octavo (25cm.); later 19th-century green pebbled cloth; 48pp. Cloth boards bumped at corners, added endpapers causing considerable browning to title page and final leaf of text, some light spotting throughout textblock, else a Very Good, still quite sound copy. Inscribed by Owen at head of title page: "With the Author's Regards." Robert Owen first purchased the textile mill at New Lanark, Scotland, from his father-in-law in 1799 and set about experimenting his socialist theories in the management of the business and its community. Owen's greatest success was revolutionizing the early education of worker's children, the foundation of which he expanded to include worker education. The present New Years address delivered at the opening of the Institute for the Formation of Character, which offered education from infancy through adulthood. Owen opened his oration by delineating the main far-reaching purposes of the Institute, "The first… Read More

Boston: Arena Publishing Company, 1893. First Edition. Large octavo (23cm). Pale blue cloth, lettered in gilt on spine and front cover; 377pp + 8pp publisher's ads; portr. frontispiece. Tight, attractive copy, lightly worn at board edges, endpapers darkened as usual; a little dulled on spine, but generally sound and better than typically seen. Private library label of John Sullivan inside front cover. Still the authoritative biographical source for Brisbane, the utopian socialist who was the leading popularizer in America of the ideas of Charles Fourier. Brisbane was instrumental in the conversion of Brook Farm to a Fourierist phalanx. An uncommon work.

Dallas: H.L. Hunt Press, 1960. First Edition. First Printing. 12mo (14.5cm.); publisher's pictorial card wrappers; [2],183pp.; illus. including photographs and facsimiles. Light shelf wear, spine a shade sunned, cancel "Amendments which have been suggested for the Constitution of Alpaca" stapled to front free endpaper with minor subsequent rust stains, else Very Good or better. Copyright page lists this as a first printing, January, 1960, with a Spanish Edition available in March. The poker player-turned-oil tycoon's right-wing utopian fantasy, in which the ideal society would function on a graduated scale of suffrage, the oldest, richest, and most ambitious citizens getting the most votes. Thus, according to the author, "Self-government will at last be an actuality without oration, declaration, demagoguery, shouts and drum-beating. Instead, there will be the fire of patriotism of a people who are sovereign with the confidence gained through elevating the best-fitted to the highest positions in… Read More

Oneida: Office of the American Socialist, 1878. First edition. Octavo (22.5cm). Publisher's green cloth, lettered in gilt on spine and front cover; 176pp; frontis, [2] inserted leaves of plates (wood engravings). Verso of final text leaf contains advertisements for two other Oneida publications. Mild external rubbing, touch of wear at base of spine, still a tight, straight, Very Good to Near Fine copy, nicely preserved. A standard sourcebook on American utopias, including notes on many communities which do not receive much mention elsewhere. There was a simultaneous issue in wrappers; expanded editions were issued in 1902 and 1908. The first edition is somewhat uncommon, especially in nice condition. HOWES H503.

New York: Holton Publishing Co, [n.d.]. Second and Abridged Edition. Octavo (24cm). Original orange paper wraps, printed on front; 8pp. Complete as issued, though text ends mid-sentence. A whole and sound copy, bumped at lower edge, with minor dirt to wrapper: Very Good. Revised excerpts from John Humphrey Noyes' The Berean, an 1847 collection of Noyes' theological articles sometimes called the "Perfectionist's Bible" (Wells p.11). With chapters on "The Divine Nature" and "The Origin of Evil." No later parts appear to have been published. Not in WELLS (The Oneida Community Collection in the Syracuse University Library). Full disclosure: Lorne Bair Rare Books is in possession of a substantial remainder of this title.

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1891. First Edition. Octavo (25cm). Publisher's gilt-stamped green cloth; 80, (2)pp. Lacks front free endpaper, else a tight, Very Good copy. Engraved bookplate and a few private accession stamps from the Library of Joseph S. Shefloe [Shefloe was long-time Professor of French at Johns Hopkins]. A good, sound copy.

[Savannah, GA: The Savannah Development Co, n.d. but ca.1930]. Printed broadside, 28cm x 21.5cm (11" x 8.5"); single column of text, printed in black on white stock. Mild toning, a few old folds, and several tiny edge tears; Very Good+. Prospectus for a Georgia planned community, operating under the umbrella of the Savannah Development Company. The text touches briefly on fees and governing rules, and extensively outlines the aims of the organization - the promotion of the arts, sciences, and literature, the publication of a journal, the establishment of a laboratory and lyceum, and "an adequate system for the care of all unable to work, and whatever may be practicable to improve the sanitary conditions of the world and promote the development of mind and the physical, moral and spiritual interests and happiness of mankind...". Not catalogued by any OCLC member institution (as of January 2021).

Stuttgart: Verlag von J.H.W. Dietz, 1890. First Edition. Small octavo (19cm.); original decorative terracotta cloth, upper cover and spine embossed in black and gilt; 311pp.; woodcut portrait frontispiece, folding panorama plate of a "phalanstère" bound in rear. Some white soil spots to lower cloth edges, spine crown a touch frayed, pages uniformly toned due to poor paper stock, else Very Good and sound. Forms part of the series Internationale Biblothek. Text entirely in German blackletter. German-language biography of the French utopian socialist and inventor of the Phalanstère, a building design for an intentional community. August Bebel was co-founder of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (1869) and acted as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1892 until his death in 1913. Provenance: Newspaperman Arthur Brisbane's copy with his signature dated 1905 on title page. Quite possibly originally in the possession of Brisbane's father Albert Brisbane (1809-1890),… Read More

Oneida, NY: Oneida Community, 1861. First Edition. Single folio issue (46cm). 4pp; ads on p.1 for Community products and publications; wood engraving of the Community Dwelling at Oneida. Whole, though rubbed, browned, and chipped at edges: Very Good. Special issue describing the Community's structure, habits, and doctrines, for questioners. Includes explanations and discussions of Bible Communism, mutual criticism, the Second Coming, spiritualism, and industrial marriage (a system designed to deliver "man from the curse of hard work, and woman from the curse of excessive propagation"). DARE 1511.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875. First edition. Publisher's green cloth boards lettered in gilt; laid endpapers; 439, (8)pp; illus; map. Engraved bookplate of Frederic Rowland Marvin to front pastedown. Bit of minor fraying to spine ends; a bright, Near Fine copy. Nordhoff's survey of utopian communities, based entirely on personal visits, remains the most reliable and thorough examination by a contemporary observer, providing detailed and generally sympathetic descriptions of life at Bethel, Aurora, Icaria, Amana, Oneida, Zoar, and the various Shaker communities. This copy with the bookplate of American clergyman & writer Frederic Rowland Marvin (1847-1918), author of several undistinguished volumes of essays and verse. MILLER 138. DARE 143. HOWES N177.

[Oneida, NY]: Oneida Community, 1874. Second Edition. Octavo (22cm). Stab-sewn pamphlet in light brown paper wraps; 39, [1]pp; list of Oneida publications on rear cover. Wrappers heavily toned at margins, one or two tiny chips to wraps at edges, else Very Good. William Hepworth Dixon had visited the Oneida Community in 1866 and published descriptions of it in 1867 and 1868. Noyes complained that Dixon's "picture of the Community is as 'strange and ludicrous to the Community as it is to the general reader '" (Wells p.12). WELLS (The Oneida Community Collection in the Syracuse University Library) p.11-12. For the 1871 first edition, see DARE (American Communes to 1860) 1480. Full disclosure: Lorne Bair Rare Books is in possession of a substantial remainder of this title.

Philadelphia: Published for the Industrial League by Henry Carey Baird, 1872. First Edition. Octavo (23.5cm.); disbound from larger volume with remnants of cloth spine still present; 96pp.; frontispiece, full-page illus. throughout. Very faint previous vertical fold, else Very Good and fresh. The title story is a satirical utopia intended to discredit supporters of laissez-faire economics, and the Free-Trade League in particular. LEWIS, p. 57; SARGENT, p. 29; not in NEGLEY.

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1897. First Edition. First Printing. Octavo (19.5cm); blue-gray cloth, with titling and decorative elements stamped in silver and black on spine and front cover; viii,412,[8]pp ads. Gently spine-sunned, lightly edgeworn, with some faint moisture staining to lower front and rear covers (though contents unaffected); previous owners ink name to front endpaper, with some crinkling to right edge of textblock on a few of the center gatherings; just Very Good. A Socialist single-tax utopia, the sequel to Bellamy's enormously popular Looking Backward 2000-1887. "It argues that economic equality is the cornerstone on which the complete life of an industrial democracy rests - political, intellectual, ethical. Although it emphasizes the place of religion in the world of A.D. 2000, society needs no organized church or ordained ministry" (Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 1-7). BAL 967; SARGENT p.56; NEGLEY 81.

[Oneida Creek, NY, 1901]. First Edition. Octavo (21cm.); staplebound self-wrappers; 9pp. Just About Fine. Article by a member of the Oneida Community, though published after the Bible Communist society had transitioned from a communal society to a joint stock company. Not in DARE.

Estero, FL: Guiding Star Publishing House, 1906. First Edition. 22 quarto issues (31cm); original illustrated wrappers, disbound; 16pp per issue. Holes (with corresponding oxidation) from saddle staples, some offsetting to spine-folds from fabric tape binding, with some light wear and dust-soil to wrappers; No.52 with several tears and toning to rear wrapper; a handful of issues with some light, scattered underlining, else quite clean; Very Good or better. Early run of this periodical edited and written by Dr. Cyrus R. Teed, a Utica, NY native and founder of the Koreshan Unity. "Koreshanity," as it was also known, was born in the wake of two related movements: the millenial fervor that swept early-to-mid-19th century central and western New York State, and the utopian communalism that began attracting increasing numbers of adherents during the same period and into the later 19th century." A graduate of Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York, Teed's interests went beyond medicine to… Read More

Oneida Reserve, NY: Oneida Community, 1851. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (24cm). Each issue 16pp. Some with sewing holes, some without. Rubbed, with some soiling, foxing, and occasional dampstaining, but largely whole: Good. A complete run of vol. IV of the publication, which succeeded The Spiritual Magazine. Noyes wrote that the name change was more cosmetic than substantive, as the community was "ascend[ing] out of the chaos of socialisms and spiritualisms, into the dignity of a church" (8). The periodical incuded articles about spiritualism, the Free Church movement, religious testimonies, updates from the Oneida Community and other religious communes, and religious "Home Talks" by Noyes, founder of the Oneida Community. Later continued as The Circular. WELLS (The Oneida Community Collection in the Syracuse University Library) pp. 23-4. DARE 1451.

Alameda: By the Author, 1903. First edition. 12mo. Original cloth; 235, (2)pp. Few faint spots to cover; abrasion to rear endpaper, else a straight, tight and unmarked copy, Very Good or better. SARGENT 65. NEGLEY 252. HANNA 894. A Christian socialist utopia is established off the coast of California.

[Carthage, IL: Country Printer, 1980]. First Edition. Octavo (21.5cm); publisher's blue pictorial staplebound card wrappers; v,48pp.; illus. Some toning to wrapper extremities, else Very Good or better.

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1884. First edition. Small octavo. Publisher's gilt-lettered cloth; floral endpapers; 219pp. A very nicely preserved copy, with gilt bright and the text sound and square in the original binding. The first thorough history of Icaria in English, written while Shaw was still an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University. Shaw went on to a long and highly influential career as a progressive journalist, editor, and critic; he edited the Review of Reviews from 1891 until it ceased publication in 1937. HOWES S-336. DARE (American Communes to 1860 ) 1284.

Paris: P.-V. Stock, 1902. First Edition. 12mo (18cm.); contemporary green morocco-backed marbled boards, gilt spine in five compartments, original wrappers bound in; [6],484pp. Boards very slightly rubbed, spine leather almost entirely toned to brown, else a Very Good to Near Fine copy. At head of title: "Bibliothèque des Recherches Sociales - No. 7." Eugenicist utopian treatise by a leader of the French Socialist party and law professor at the Collège des Sciences Sociales. Based in part on Paolo Mantegazza's L'Anno 3000 (1897), Tarbouriech's proposal included the sterilization of degenerates, mandatory reporting of pregnancy, and state support in the rearing of unwanted children. The work failed to attract a following in part due to is overly authoritarian tone and "excessively harsh" propositions (William H. Schneir, "Quality and Quantity" (2002), p. 58), though it should be noted in sweetening the deal that the author also described a society in which "Men and women will share on equal… Read More