ECCLES, L[ewis] F[ranklin]

Vol. I. A Plain Analysis of Socialism. Second Edition (Revised)

Pullman, WA: By the Author, 1907. Second (Revised) Edition. Small octavo (19cm). Printed paper wrappers; 192pp. Front wrapper stained; pencil scrawl to rear wrapper and somewhat less boldly to front wrapper. Contents tanned but not brittle; a solid, complete, Good copy.

The first volume of a two-part work (published separately) that included also The Trumpet Voice From the Throne (1907). We find reference to the author as the proprietor of a small farmstead in Washtucna, WA in 1912, the same year in which he sold the farm and moved into Pullman with his family. Eccles's involvement in the Washington State Socialist apparatus is uncertain. The current work appears to be a digest of the many Socialist "primers" at this time in wide circulation; the author states that his "one fixed and settled purpose has been to present to the great plain people, of whom I am one, a book which, when one has read, he will be ready to say, 'I am a socialist...I have almost entirely avoided statistics. Books of these are easily obtained by those who desire to consult them. My object is not so much to tell the reader something he does not already know, as to reason with him upon information that he already has..."

A fascinating entry in the expansive early 20th-century literature of vernacular socialism, and rather uncommon; OCLC notes six physical locations, all of them apparently being the Second ediition.

Price: $125.00

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