Looking Forward

I wanted to share an oddball title with you today - "Looking Forward: A Dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999." It was written by Arthur Bird, ex-Vice Consul-General of America, Haiti, in 1899. Bird attempted to transport the reader 100 years into the future, or his very idealized vision of the future. It's an interesting political and social fossil:
















-Click to enlarge photos-
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13 comments:

  1. becky up the hillOctober 8, 2012 at 10:53 AM

    "France Eats Humble Pie". What an amazing and weird book. I love it!

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  2. UnknownOctober 8, 2012 at 11:04 AM

    Fantastic find!!! 'Looking Forward' is one of the responses to Edward Bellamy's 1888 novel 'Looking Backward, 2000-1887,' a utopian socialist novel about a Bostonian who wakes up in the year 2000. Bellamy's book was one of the bestsellers of the late 19th century.

    The utopian enthusiast in me in geeking out right now.

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  3. AnonymousOctober 8, 2012 at 12:04 PM

    Oh I would love to read this!

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  4. Reading RamboOctober 8, 2012 at 12:11 PM

    This is amazing, and I want to read it. Has anyone put it all online?

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  5. AnonymousOctober 8, 2012 at 1:43 PM

    Wow, that's so amazingly scary.

    It's online at the Internet Archive:

    http://archive.org/details/lookingforwarddr00bird

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  6. Lisa ShaferOctober 8, 2012 at 9:11 PM

    I find this very tempting, but if it is truly a rare book, it's probably out of my price range. Care to share its price?

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  7. techeditorOctober 9, 2012 at 8:44 AM

    I want that book. I'm going to find it.

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  8. mejakaOctober 9, 2012 at 8:51 AM

    Wow. I wonder if I could locate a copy for my dad...assuming that this copy will be Lisa Shafer's if it's within my range! What an interesting book, and SusieBookworm, thanks for the additional backstory on this volume!

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  9. mejakaOctober 9, 2012 at 8:57 AM

    Wow. I wonder if I could locate a copy for my dad...assuming that this copy will be Lisa Shafer's if it's within my range! What an interesting book, and SusieBookworm, thanks for the additional backstory on this volume!

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  10. Michael PopekOctober 9, 2012 at 8:58 AM

    I just looked around a bit online - there's a print-on-demand copy for $18.00 or so, and vintage copies start at $45 and go up to $250.

    We have two copies in stock

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  11. Lisa ShaferOctober 9, 2012 at 10:40 PM

    As I feared, then. Ah well. I did enjoy your photos of the book. :)

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  12. BozOctober 15, 2012 at 11:06 AM

    I've read the Edward Bellamy book, 'Looking Forward' after coming across it at the exhibition of Sci-Fi at the British Museum. It's really well written, and (I think) is cited as pre-inventing the credit card.

    Alas, some of its views on women were less imaginative than the rest of the book..

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  13. Michael5000November 5, 2012 at 12:15 AM

    Ooh, nice! It looks like there was a paperback printing a few years ago.

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