SOURCE: White, Frederic R. Introduction to Looking Backward: 2000-1887, by Edward Bellamy, pp. v-xxviii. Chicago, Ill.: Packard and Co., 1946.

In the following essay, White asserts that Looking Backward is an important and unique novel in American literature and explores the three main elements that he believes contribute to its popularity: namely, that it is a romantic novel, that it portrays a realistic criticism of society, and that it dramatizes the concept of equality.

Edward Bellamy, the author of Looking Backward, was the product of two parental extremes. His father, a jovial and well-beloved Baptist minister, was “so fat he could not lean over.” His mother, slight and silent, was “a piece of frail Dresden china.” Edward, the famous offspring of this union of opposites, gave no sure outward sign of any inward grace. He underwent the education customary among his caste. The usual public schooling, a year at...