Young West

Last updated
Young West
Author Solomon Schindler
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Utopian fiction
Publisher Arena Publishing Co.
Publication date
 1894
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages283 pp.

Young West: A Sequel to Edward Bellamy's Celebrated Novel "Looking Backward" is an 1894 utopian novel, [1] written by Solomon Schindler, radical rabbi of Boston. [2] As its subtitle indicates, the book was one of the many responses and sequels to Edward Bellamy's famous 1888 novel Looking Backward , and was one volume in the major wave of utopian and dystopian writing that distinguished the later nineteenth century. [3] [4] [5]

Schindler had earlier translated Looking Backward into German (1890). His sequel was printed by the Arena Publishing Company, a prominent radical house of the 1890s; Schindler and publisher B. O. Flower served together on the board of directors of the American Psychical Society. Flower was responsible for one curious aspect of the book's first edition: he believed that the black-on-white contrast of standard printing caused eyestrain, and decided that the pages of Young West would have colored margins, in blue, green, and yellow. [6]

Schindler's sequel follows upon the plot of Bellamy's original: protagonist Julian West marries heroine Edith Lette, and they soon have a son. Yet West senior dies only two years after his awakening in the year 2000; "Schindler's fictional response was in many ways more sophisticated than the responses of most twentieth-century critics who ignore or downplay West's anguish at the conclusion of Looking Backward." [7] Schindler's book follows the development of the son, "young West," from early youth to eventual triumph, when, after a rigorous campaign, he wins election to the presidency of the United States.

Schindler's book diverges from Bellamy's original, in that where Bellamy placed strong emphasis on religion, Schindler's attitude is agnostic. (Schindler had already moved away from traditional Judaism; after a brief flirtation with spiritualism around 1892, he became a firm skeptic.) [8] Bellamy thought that socialism would arise first in America, while Schindler expected Europe to be first; he foresaw the weakening of European nationalism and wholesale intermarriage among Europeans. [9]

Schindler's book helps to illustrate the wide reach of the utopian literature of its era. While many books in the genre were authored by White Anglo-Saxon Protestant males, other works were created by Jewish, Irish (Ignatius Donnelly's Caesar's Column and The Golden Bottle), and African-American (Sutton E. Griggs's Imperium in Imperio ) writers, and by a number of women. [10]

Related Research Articles

Edward Bellamy American author (1850–1898)

Edward Bellamy was an American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel Looking Backward. Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of numerous "Nationalist Clubs" dedicated to the propagation of Bellamy's political ideas.

<i>Looking Backward</i> 1888 novel by Edward Bellamy

Looking Backward: 2000–1887 is a utopian novel by Edward Bellamy, a journalist and writer from Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; it was first published in 1888.

Solomon Schindler

Solomon Schindler (1842–1915) was a rabbi and author.

The Republic of the Future: or, Socialism a Reality is a novella by the American writer Anna Bowman Dodd, first published in 1887. The book is a dystopia written in response to the utopian literature that was a dramatic and noteworthy feature of the second half of the nineteenth century.

<i>Caesars Column</i> 1890 novel by Ignatius Donnelly

Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century is a novel by Ignatius Donnelly, famous as the author of Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. Caesar's Column was published pseudonymously in 1890. The book has been variously categorized as science fiction, speculative fiction, dystopian fiction, and/or apocalyptic fiction; one critic has termed it an "Apocalyptic Utopia."

<i>New Amazonia</i> 1889 novel by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett

New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future is a feminist utopian novel, written by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett and first published in 1889. It was one element in the wave of utopian and dystopian literature that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Diothas; or, A Far Look Ahead is a 1883 utopian novel written by John Macnie and published using the pseudonym "Ismar Thiusen". The Diothas has been called "perhaps the second most important American nineteenth-century ideal society" after Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888).

For the silent film see The Great Romance (film)

Earth Revisited is an 1893 utopian novel by Byron Alden Brooks. It is one entrant in the large body of utopian and speculative fiction that characterized the later 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Milltillionaire, or Age of Bardization is a work of utopian fiction written by Albert Waldo Howard, and published under the pseudonym "M. Auberré Hovorré." The book was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth century.

The World a Department Store: A Story of Life Under a Coöperative System is a utopian novel written by Bradford C. Peck, and published by him in 1900. The book was one entrant in the wave of utopian and dystopian writing that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moreover, Peck's book was one of the minority of utopian works of the time that was linked to an effort at practical application of its ideas.

<i>A Crystal Age</i> 1887 novel by William Henry Hudson

A Crystal Age is a utopian novel/Dystopia written by W. H. Hudson, first published in 1887. The book has been called a "significant S-F milestone" and has been noted for its anticipation of the "modern ecological mysticism" that would evolve a century later.

Arena Publishing Co.

Arena Publishing Company was an American book and magazine publishing firm of the late 19th century, founded by author and editor B. O. Flower.

A Prophetic Romance: Mars to Earth is an 1896 utopian novel written by John McCoy, and published pseudonymously as the work of "The Lord Commissioner," the narrator of the tale. The book is one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth century.

Moving the Mountain is a feminist utopian novel written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It was published serially in Perkins Gilman's periodical The Forerunner and then in book form, both in 1911. The book was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The novel was also the first volume in Gilman's utopian trilogy; it was followed by the famous Herland (1915) and its sequel, With Her in Ourland (1916).

Nationalist Clubs Organized American network of socialist political groups (1888–1896)

Nationalist Clubs were an organized network of socialist political groups which emerged at the end of the 1880s in the United States of America in an effort to make real the ideas advanced by Edward Bellamy in his utopian novel Looking Backward. At least 165 Nationalist Clubs were formed by so-called "Bellamyites," who sought to remake the economy and society through the nationalization of industry. One of the last issues of The Nationalist noted that "over 500" had been formed. Owing to the growth of the Populist movement and the financial and physical difficulties suffered by Bellamy, the Bellamyite Nationalist Clubs began to dissipate in 1892, lost their national magazine in 1894, and vanished from the scene entirely circa 1896.

David M. Parry

David MacLean Parry was an American industrialist and writer.

<i>New Nation</i> (United States)

The New Nation was a weekly newspaper launched in Boston, Massachusetts in January 1891 by the American socialist writer Edward Bellamy. The paper served as a de facto national organ of the nationwide network of Nationalist Clubs and expounded upon their activities and political ideas, which derived from the best-selling 1888 novel Looking Backward.

<i>The Nationalist</i> (United States)

The Nationalist was an American socialist magazine established in Boston, Massachusetts in May 1889 by adherents of the utopian ideas of writer Edward Bellamy in his 1888 book, Looking Backward. Published by a "Nationalist Educational Association" closely associated with Nationalist Club No. 1 of Boston, the magazine served as the national organ of the Bellamyite movement in the United States until being supplanted by the weekly newspaper The New Nation in 1891.

References

  1. ↑ Solomon Schindler, Young West: A Sequel to Edward Bellamy's Celebrated Novel "Looking Backward," Boston, Arena Publishing Co., 1894.
  2. ↑ Arthur Mann, "Solomon Schindler: Boston Radical," The New England Quarterly, Vol. 23 No. 4 (December 1950), pp. 453-76.
  3. ↑ Kenneth M. Roemer, The Obsolete Necessity: America in Utopian Writings, 1888–1900, Kent, OH, Kent State University Press, 1976.
  4. ↑ Jean Pfaelzer, The Utopian Novel in America, 1886–1896: The Politics of Form, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984.
  5. ↑ Matthew Beaumont, Utopia Ltd.: Ideologies of Social Dreaming in England, 1870–1900, Leiden, Brill Academic Publishers, 2005.
  6. ↑ Mann, p. 471.
  7. ↑ Kenneth M. Roemer, Utopian Audiences: How Readers Locate Nowhere, Amherst, MA, University of Massachusetts Press, 2003; p. 33.
  8. ↑ Mann, pp. 472-3.
  9. ↑ Mann, p. 474.
  10. ↑ Susan L. Mizruchi, "Becoming Multicultural: Culture, Economy, and the Novel, 1860–1920," in: The Cambridge History of American Literature, Volume Three: Prose Writing, 1860–1920, Sacvan Bercovitch, general editor, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005; p. 711.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.