Persons, Places and Ideas: Miscellaneous Essays by B.O. Flower

B.O. Flower

Published by The Arena Publishing Co.

About this Item

[1896] signed and inscribed first edition / association copy (singer and 'poet of the people' James G. Clark, whose photograph and biography are at pp. 37-39), The Arena Publishing Co. (Boston, Massachusetts), 6 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches tall beige cloth hardbound, no dust jacket, gilt design and lettering to front cover and spine, printed on heavy paper, more than thirty full-page plates, 193 pp. Heavy soiling, staining, rubbing and edgewear to covers, with darkening to the spine, a dark coffee cup ring to the front cover, red staining to the lower rear cover, a bit of fraying to the top spine cap and bumping to all four outer tips. Light upper marginal dampstains - to a greater or lesser degree - through the entire volume. Cracking between blank rear free-endpaper and pastedown, but the binding holds quite firmly. Despite these detractions, still a solid, complete copy, nicely signed on the blank front free-endpaper in December 1895 by the author, inscribed to his 'dear friend,' poet-singer James G. Clark (1830 - 1897), a Boston composer and poet of some renown, called 'the poet of the people' by Flower in his 13-page tribute to Clark, preceded by Clark's full-page photograph, at pp. 37-49 of this volume (originally published in The Arena). ~D~ Contents: Dedication; Charles Darwin; An idealistic dreamer who sings in the minor key; Mask or mirror; A poet of the people; After sixty years; Chester-on-the-Dee; Strolls beyond the walls of Chester; Winter days in Florida; Religious thought in colonial days; Some social ideals held by Victor Hugo; Fostering the savage in the young; Hypnotism and its relation to psychical research; Crucial moments in national life; Room for the soul of man; The august present. Benjamin Orange Flower (1858 - 1918), known most commonly by his initials 'B.O.,' was an American muckraking journalist of the Progressive era. Flower is best remembered for his liberal muckraking during his editorship of The Arena from 1889 until 1909. The Arena was an eclectic magazine, its pages open to writers of a wide range of ideological perspectives, ranging from advocates of cooperatives and populists to philosophical anarchists, socialists, and devotees of Henry George and the Single Tax. Uniting it all was Flower's evolutionary rather than revolutionary view of social change and his deep-seated faith in the perfectibility of mankind through enlightenment about the world and reasoned response to its problems. Flower advocated for kindergartens, libraries, and improved housing. He criticized ostentatious, costly, and encumbering women's clothing, 'materialistic commercialism,' and the wealthy class which monopolized society's economic resources. The magazine consistently advocated for initiative and referendum, for prison reform, against capital punishment, and for the prohibition of alcohol. Multiple articles were dedicated to women's suffrage, reform of divorce law, the relationship between poverty and crime, and race relations between the white and black populations of the United States. Seller Inventory # D-0261-5221

Bibliographic Details

Title: Persons, Places and Ideas: Miscellaneous ...

Publisher: The Arena Publishing Co.

Condition: Fair