Editing Looking Backward (section)

==Publication history==
The decades of the 1870s and the 1880s were marked by economic and social turmoil, including the [[Long Depression]] of 1873–1879, a series of [[recession]]s during the 1880s, the rise of [[trade union|organized labor]] and [[strike action|strikes]], and the 1886 [[Haymarket affair]] and its controversial aftermath.<ref name=Bowman87>Sylvia E. Bowman, ''The Year 2000: A Critical Biography of Edward Bellamy.'' New York: Bookman Associates, 1958; pp. 87–89.</ref> Moreover, American capitalism's tendency towards concentration into ever larger and less competitive forms—[[monopoly|monopolies]], [[oligopoly|oligopolies]], and [[trust (business)|trusts]]—began to make itself evident, while emigration from Europe expanded the labor pool and caused wages to stagnate.<ref name=Bowman87 /> The time was ripe for new ideas about economic development which might ameliorate the current social disorder.

[[Edward Bellamy]] (1850–1898), a relatively unknown [[New England]]-born novelist with a history of concern with social issues,<ref>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' p. 96.</ref> began to conceive of writing an impactful work of visionary fiction<ref name=BackwardKrugman>{{citation |newspaper=[[New York Times]]
 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/opinion/technology-progress-innovation-satisfaction.html
 |title=Technology and the Triumph of Pessimism |quote=speculative fiction
  |author=Paul Krugman |date=June 28, 2022 |access-date=August 29, 2022}}</ref> shaping the outlines of a [[utopian socialism|utopian]] future, in which production and society were ordered for the smooth production and distribution of commodities to a regimented labor force. In this he was not alone—between 1860 and 1887, no fewer than 11 such works of fiction were produced in the United States by various authors dealing fundamentally with the questions of economic and social organization.<ref>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' p. 107.</ref>

Bellamy's book, gradually planned throughout the 1880s, was completed in 1887 and taken to [[Boston]] publisher Benjamin Ticknor, who published a first edition of the novel in January 1888.<ref name=Bowman115>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' p. 115.</ref> Initial sales of the book were modest and uninspiring, but the book did find a readership in the Boston area, including enthusiastic reviews by future Bellamyites [[Cyrus Field Willard]] of the ''[[Boston Globe]]'' and [[Sylvester Baxter]] of the ''Boston Herald.''

Shortly after publication, Ticknor's publishing enterprise, Ticknor and Company, was purchased by the larger Boston publisher, [[Houghton, Mifflin & Co.]], and new publishing plates were created for the book.<ref name=Bowman115 /> Certain "slight emendations" were made to the text by Bellamy for this second edition, released by Houghton Mifflin in September 1889.<ref>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' pp. 115–116.</ref>

In its second release, Bellamy's futuristic novel met with enormous popular success, with more than 400,000 copies sold in the United States alone by the time Bellamy's follow-up novel, ''Equality,'' was published in 1897.<ref name=Bowman121>Bowman, ''The Year 2000,'' p. 121.</ref> Sales topped 532,000 in the US by the middle of 1939.<ref name=Bowman121 /> The book gained an extensive readership in [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]], as well, with more than 235,000 copies sold there between its first release in 1890 and 1935.<ref name=Bowman121 />

The ''Bellamy Library of Fact and Fiction'', by William Reeves, a radical London publisher, printer and bookseller was a systematic effort to organize this literature. The Bellamy Library codified series of texts designed to make political works, defined by their radical content and popular appeal, both intellectually and financially accessible to working-class activists and lower- middle-class radicals. It was especially popular among [[working men's club]]s.<ref>Beaumont, Matthew. “William Reeves and Late-Victorian Radical Publishing: Unpacking the Bellamy Library.” ''History Workshop Journal'', no. 55 (2003): 91–110.</ref>

<!--Andolfatto has all of the Chinese characters for the Chinese names-->
The first version of the novel published in China, heavily edited for the tastes of Chinese readers, was titled ''Huitou kan jilüe'' (回頭看記略). This text was later retitled ''Bainian Yi Jiao'' (百年一覺 ), or "A Sleep of 100 Years" and in 1891–1892 this version was serialized in ''[[Wanguo gongbao]]'';<ref name=Andolfatto>Andolfatto, Lorenzo. "[http://transtexts.revues.org/619 Productive distortions: On the translated imaginaries and misplaced identities of the late Qing utopian novel]" ([http://transtexts.revues.org/pdf/619 PDF version]). ''Transtext(e)s Transcultures'' (跨文本跨文化), 10, 2015. {{doi|10.4000/transtexts.619}}.</ref> the organization Guangxuehui (廣學會; Society for Promoting Education) published these pieces in a book format. This first translation, the first piece of science fiction from a Western country published in [[Qing dynasty]] China, was done in an abridged format by [[Timothy Richard]].<ref name=DDWangTranslatingp310>[[David Der-wei Wang|Wang, David D. W.]] "Translating Modernity." In: Pollard, David E. (editor). ''Translation and Creation: Readings of Western Literature in Early Modern China, 1840–1918''. [[John Benjamins Publishing]], 1998. {{ISBN|978-9027216281}}. Start: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni88Ddi_S2cC&pg=PA303 303]. CITED: p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni88Ddi_S2cC&pg=PA310 310].</ref> The novel was again serialized in China in 1898, in ''Zhongguo guanyin baihua bao'' (中國官音白話報);<ref name=Andolfatto/> and in 1904, under the title ''Huitou kan'' (Looking Backward), within ''Xiuxiang xiaoshuo'' (繡像小說; Illustrated Fiction).<ref name=DDWangTranslatingp310/>

The book remains in print in multiple editions, with one publisher alone having reissued the title in a printing of 100,000 copies in 1945.<ref>Joseph Schiffman, "Introduction" to Edward Bellamy: ''Selected Writings on Religion and Society.'' New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1955; p. xxxviii.</ref>