By the Co-Founder of New Harmony

Opinions, on Various Subjects, Dedicated to the Industrious Producers.

New Harmony, Ind: Printed at the School Press, 1831 - [1837].

Price: $1,750.00


About the item

First edition. [4], 592pp. Two volumes in one, with continuous pagination, separate title-page for volume II. 1 vols. 8vo. By the Co-Founder of New Harmony. 19th-century marbled paper over boards, rebacked with cloth tape. Ex-library, with bookplate on front pastedown and perforated stamp on title-page, the latter clipped at top margin. Howes M 162 (for these 2 parts; the third is given a separate reference number); Byrd & Peckham 444; American Imprints 8077 (with third part); Kress C.2880; Walker 101 & 210; Lilly, One Hundred and Fifty Years, 31; Sabin 43554.

Item #8197

William Maclure, the Father of American Geology, and wealthy patron of science and educational reformer, was one of the co-founders of Robert Dale Owen’s New Harmony; indeed, he was its principal financial supporter, purchased land in the vicinity, persuaded other scientists (e.g., Thomas Say) to accompany him there, and invested $10,000 in Owen’s utopian communistic society. Their relationship ultimately foundered when the two quarrelled (over private property!), and Maclure withdrew his support. (For a full account of Maclure and New Harmony, see Marguerite Young’s Angel in the Forest, pp. 259-260 These essays originally appeared in the New-Harmony Gazette and The Disseminator of Useful Knowledge; a few of the articles in Volume I first appeared in Paris for the Revue Encyclopédique. “The work has an irregular and confusing publishing history. Volume I was completed but no copies were released. The press continued with the printing of Volume II, supplying an undated title page and numbering the pages continuously with the first volume. After printing page 592 which concluded the essay entitled “Accumulation of property on credit…” some copies of the whole work were released and bound as one volume. This is the first edition.” (Lilly, One Hundred Years) The third and final part was issued in 1838. Maclure expounds his theories of education, economics, psychology, and social organization. A rare and important book by one of America’s most fascinating figures.