Bellamy, Edward

Bellamy, Edward

(1850–98) writer; born in Chicopee Falls, Mass. He studied law, then turned to journalism, founding the Springfield (Mass.) Daily News in 1880. He also tried his hand at fiction, but he had become increasingly absorbed in contemporary social issues. In 1888 he published a utopian romance, Looking Backward: 2000–1887, and its million-copy sales enabled him to devote the ensuing years to refining his notions of state capitalism. The Nationalist Party was established to promote his ideas; he founded The New Nation (1891), a journal; and he further expounded his ideas in Equality (1897). He died prematurely of tuberculosis.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Bellamy, Edward

 

Born Mar. 26, 1850, in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; died there May 22, 1898. American writer. Son of a clergyman. A lawyer by education.

In the historical novel The Duke of Stockbridge (1879; separate edition, 1901), Bellamy described the revolt of the masses in 1786 as a result of economic inequality. The Utopian novel Looking Backward (1888; Russian translation, In the Year 2000, 1889) brought Bellamy world fame. In this novel he depicted a socialist society, which was achieved through a process of peaceful evolution, as a system of universal equality. Reformist and technocratic illusions are characteristic of this work. In the USA the novel caused the rise of Bellamy Clubs that strove to realize the writer’s plans. During the decline of this movement, Bellamy wrote the book Equality (1897; Russian translation, 1907), in which he developed and made more precise the ideas in his novel.

REFERENCES

Ianzhul, I. V poiskakh luchshego budushchego, 2nd ed. St. Petersburg, 1908.
Krupskaia, N. K. Pedagogicheskie sochineniia, vol. 4. Moscow, 1959. Pages 410–11.
Morton, A. Angliiskaia utopiia. Moscow, 1956.
Parrington, V. L. Osnovnye techeniia amerikanskoi mysli, vol. 3. Moscow, 1963. Pages 375–90.
Bowman, S. E. E. Bellamy Abroad: An American Prophet’s Influence. New York, 1962.

B. A. GILENSON

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.