14 Facts About Edward Bellamy

Edward Bellamy was an American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel Looking Backward.

Edward Bellamy published Equality, a sequel to Looking Backward, in 1897, and died the following year.

Edward Bellamy's father was Rufus King Bellamy, a Baptist minister and a descendant of Joseph Bellamy.

Edward Bellamy's mother, Maria Louisa Putnam Bellamy, was a Calvinist.

Edward Bellamy was the daughter of a Baptist minister named Benjamin Putnam, who was forced to withdraw from the ministry in Salem, Massachusetts, following objections to his becoming a Freemason.

Edward Bellamy attended public school at Chicopee Falls before leaving for Union College of Schenectady, New York, where he studied for just two semesters.

Edward Bellamy briefly studied law but abandoned that field without ever having practiced as a lawyer, instead entering the world of journalism.

At the age of 25, Edward Bellamy developed tuberculosis, the disease that would ultimately kill him.

Edward Bellamy suffered with its effects throughout his adult life.

Edward Bellamy's book inspired legions of inspired readers to establish so-called Nationalist Clubs, beginning in Boston late in 1888.

Edward Bellamy himself came to actively participate in the political movement which emerged around his book, particularly after 1891 when he founded his own magazine, The New Nation, and began to promote united action between the various Nationalist Clubs and the emerging People's Party.

Edward Bellamy set to work on a sequel to Looking Backward titled Equality, attempting to deal with the ideal society of the post-revolutionary future in greater detail.

Several short stories of Edward Bellamy's were published in 1898, and The Duke of Stockbridge; a Romance of Shays' Rebellion was published in 1900.

Edward Bellamy was the cousin of Francis Edward Bellamy, famous for creation of the Pledge of Allegiance.