VOICES FROM THE KENDUSKEAG. Bangor, [Maine]: Published by David Bugbee, 1848. 12mo, pp. [1-3] 4 [5] 6-286 [287-288: blank], errata slip present at rear, flyleaves at front and rear, original decorated brown cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, yellow endpapers. First edition. Anonymously edited anthology collecting fiction by Maine writers, all contributed anonymously. Includes "A Vision of Bangor in the Twentieth Century" by Edward Kent, and "Sequel to the 'Vision of Bangor in the Twentieth Century'" by Mrs. Jane S. Appleton. "Governor [Edward] Kent's dream of future Bangor included such typically utopian characteristics as magnificent buildings, good transportation, growing population, abolition of slavery, fast communication throughout the world, and the partial failure of attempts to set up communal bakeries, laundries, and restaurants along the lines of Fourier's proposals. His strongest disagreement with Jane Sophia Appleton's 'Sequel' was his assumption that women no longer would be involved in government because they were really incapable of doing a good job there (for example, female members of the legislative insisted on keeping hairdressing appointments but not legislative secrets). As coeditor ... Mrs. Appleton had persuaded Governor Edward Kent to write the feminine point of view of the future he had foreseen. She agreed with his concern for an end to slavery, for beautification of cities, for expansion of the role of women in society, for elimination of hypocrisy in government and in social life. But although both said that women would not be involved in government, they disagreed about the causes. Appleton pointed out that women had been running the country in the past because they advised their husbands -- often to the detriment of the latter -- but in this new world, following certain undescribed but effective actions, all that changed: 'Once more order and beauty were restored to society, and men became men again.' Kent and Appleton together described the kind of gentle utopia that might have come about if small-town intellectuals of the late nineteenth century had had their way." - Lewis, Utopian Literature, pp. 107; 4-5. See Lewis, American Utopias (1971). Kessler, ed., Daring to Dream: Utopian Fiction by United States Women Before 1950, second edition (1995), p. 251 Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 49 and p. 50. Kopp 729. Wright (I) 39. Joseph Williamson, A Bibliography of the State of Maine (1896), I, 41-42. Cloth lightly worn at spine ends, corner tips rubbed, spine panel a bit tanned, a bit of foxing early and late, a very good copy. Signature of early owner S. Judd, Jr. dated 1848 on the front paste-down. The names or initials of several of the contributors are penciled on the contents pages and at the head of several of the contributions, presumably by Mr. Judd. (#157224).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.