Edward Bellamy

Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist known greatly for his famous work of Looking Backwards set in the year 2000. Bellamy was born in Chicopee Falls. His father was Rufus King Bellamy, a Baptist minister and a descendant of Joseph Bellamy. His mother was Maria Louisa Bellamy. Her father, Benjamin Putnam, had also been a Baptist minister, but had to withdraw from the ministry, following objections to him being made a freemason. Edward had two older brothers, Frederick and Charles. He was the cousin of Francis Bellamy, most famous for creating the Pledge of Allegiance. He married Emma Augusta Sanderson in1882. The couple had two children; Paul and Marion. He attended Union University, but did not graduate. While there, he joined the Theta Chi Chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. He studied law, but left the practice and worked briefly in the newspaper industry. He left journalism and devoted himself to literature, writing both short stories and novels. Some of his books include Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process (1880), Miss Lundstons Sister (1884), Equality (1897) and The Duke of Stockbridge (1900). His feeling of injustice in the economic system led him to write Looking Backwards 2000-1887 and its sequel, Equality. Bellamy died at his childhood home in Chicopee Falls at the age of 48 from tuberculosis.

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