Editing Looking Backward (section)

==Reaction and sequels==
{{main|List of sequels to Looking Backward}}

On publication, ''Looking Backward'' was praised by both the [[American Federation of Labor]] and the [[Knights of Labor]].<ref name="rew">Robert E. Weir, ''Workers in America: A Historical Encyclopedia''.Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, 2013 {{ISBN|1598847198}} (pp. 68–70).</ref> Many members of the Knights read ''Looking Backward'' and also joined Bellamy's Nationalist clubs.<ref name="rew" /> ''Looking Backward'' was also praised by [[Daniel De Leon]], [[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]] and [[Upton Sinclair]].<ref name="rew" />

In 1897, Bellamy wrote a sequel, ''[[Equality (book)|Equality]]'', dealing with women's rights, education, and many other issues. Bellamy wrote the sequel to elaborate and clarify many of the ideas merely touched upon in ''Looking Backward''.

The success of ''Looking Backward'' provoked a spate of sequels,<ref name=sequals>{{citation |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/utopias
|title=Utopias |access-date=August 28, 2022}}</ref> parodies, satires, dystopian, and '[[Anti-utopia|anti-utopian]]' responses.<ref>Jean Pfaelzer,''The Utopian Novel in America, 1886–1896: The Politics of Form'', Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press; pp. 78–94, 170–73.</ref> A partial list of these follows.<ref>This list was derived from G. Claeys ''Late Victorian Utopias: A Prospective'', (Pickering and Chatto, London, 2008), J. Pfaelzer, ''The Utopian Novel in America 1886–1896: The Politics of Form'', (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 1984), K. Roemer, ''The Obsolete Necessity: America in Utopian Writings, 1888–1900'', (Kent State University Press, Kent, 1976), K. Roemer, ''Utopian Audiences, How Readers Locate Nowhere'', (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 2003), C.J. Rooney, ''Dreams and Visions: a study of American utopias, 1865–1917'' (1997), F. Shor, ''Utopianism and radicalism in a reforming America, 1888–1918'', (Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut, 1997), and especially L.T. Sargent ''British and American Utopian Literature, 1516–1985: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography'' (Garland Publishing, New York, 1988).</ref>
The result was a "battle of the books" that lasted through the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th. The back-and-forth nature of the debate is illustrated by the subtitle of Geissler's 1891 ''Looking Beyond'', which is "A Sequel to 'Looking Backward' by Edward Bellamy and an Answer to 'Looking Forward' by Richard Michaelis".

The book was translated into [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] in 1892. Bellamy personally approved a request by Bulgarian author [[Iliya Yovchev]] to make an "adapted translation" based on the realities of [[Bulgaria]]n social order. The resulting work, titled ''The Present as Seen by Our Descendants And a Glimpse at the Progress of the Future'' ("Настоящето, разгледано от потомството ни и надничане в напредъка на бъдещето"), generally followed the same plot. The events in Yovchev's version take place in an [[environmentally friendly]] [[Sofia]] and describe the country's unique path of adapting to the new social order. It is considered by local critics to be the first Bulgarian utopian work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chitanka.info/text/20938-nachaloto|title=The Beginning|author=Ivaylo Runchev|publisher=Narodna Mladezh|year=1985|access-date=1 July 2013|quote=Фактически налице е произведение, отличаващо се от оригинала дотолкова, че следва да се говори за нов роман, първия ни български утопичен роман. ("Basically this work differs from the original to such an extent, that we can consider it a new novel, the first Bulgarian Utopian novel.)}}</ref>

The book also influenced activists in Britain. Scientist [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] credited ''Looking Backward'' for his conversion to socialism.<ref>Paul T Phillips, ''A Kingdom on Earth : Anglo-American Social Christianity, 1880–1940.'' University Park, Pennsylvania : Pennsylvania State University Press. 1996. {{ISBN|978-0271015804}} (p. 194).</ref> Politician [[Alfred Salter]] cited ''Looking Backward'' as an influence on his political thought.<ref>[[Fenner Brockway]], ''Bermondsey Story : The Life of Alfred Salter''. London : George Allen & Unwin, 1949. (p. 6)</ref>

[[William Morris]]'s [[1890 in literature|1890]] utopia ''[[News from Nowhere]]'' was partly written in reaction to Bellamy's utopia, which Morris did not find congenial.<ref>{{cite web|last=Morris|first= William|title=Bellamy's Looking Backward|work=The William Morris Internet Archive Works (1889)|access-date=17 February 2024|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1889/commonweal/06-bellamy.htm}}</ref>

Bellamy's descriptions of utopian [[urban planning]] influenced [[Ebenezer Howard]] to found the [[garden city movement]] in England, and also influenced the design of the [[Bradbury Building]] in [[Los Angeles]].
[[Image:Edward Bellamy 2000 1887.jpg|thumb|German Reclam edition 1919]]
During the [[Great railroad strike of 1877|Great Strikes of 1877]], [[Eugene V. Debs]] argued that there was no essential necessity for the conflict between capital and labor. Debs was influenced by Bellamy's book to turn to a more [[socialist]] direction. He soon helped to form the [[American Railway Union]]. With supporters from the [[Knights of Labor]] and from the immediate vicinity of Chicago, workers at the [[Pullman Palace Car Company]] went on strike in June 1894. This came to be known as the [[Pullman Strike]].

The book had a specific and intense reception in [[Wilhelminian Germany]] including various parodies and sequels, from [[Eduard Loewenthal]], Ernst Müller and [[Philipp Wasserburg]], [[Konrad Wilbrandt]] and [[Richard Michaelis]].<ref>(Edward Bellamy, ''Ein Rückblick aus dem Jahre 2000 auf das Jahr 1887'', Translation Georg von Gizycki, editor Wolfgang Biesterfeld. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1983 {{ISBN|3-15-002660-1}} (Universal-Bibliothek 2660 [4]), Afterword of Biesterfeld, pp. 301f.)</ref>

The Russian translation of ''Looking Backward'' was banned by the [[Russian Empire|Tsarist Russian]] censors.<ref>Sylvia E. Bowman, ''Edward Bellamy abroad: An American Prophet's Influence''. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1962 (pp. 70–78).</ref>

In the 1930s, there was a revival of interest in ''Looking Backward''. Several groups were formed to promote the book's ideas. The largest was Edward Bellamy Association of New York; its honorary members included [[John Dewey]], [[Heywood Broun]] and [[Roger N. Baldwin]].<ref name="aem">Aaron D. Purcell, ''Arthur Morgan: A Progressive Vision for American Reform''. University of Tennessee Press, 2014 {{ISBN|978-1621900580}} (pp. 214–19)</ref> [[Arthur Ernest Morgan]], chairman of the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]], also admired the book and wrote the first biography of Bellamy.<ref name="aem" /><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/books/l-looking-forward-390020.html |title=Looking Forward
|author=Ken Brociner |date=January 21, 2001 |access-date=August 29, 2022}}</ref>