[UTOPIAN COMMUNITIES] WELLCOME, Henry S.

The Story of Metlakahtla

London: Saxon & Co., 1887. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (20cm). Blue cloth stamped in gilt; light green floral patterned endpapers; xx,483,[3]pp; one-page publisher's advertisement at rear; frontispiece, black and white plates. Lightly rubbed, corners bumped, minor marks to cloth, but generally Very Good.

"Metlakatla Pass, Canada, is at an ancestral Tsimshian village where William Duncan (1832-1918) created a utopian Christian Indian settlement in 1862. He led several hundred [Tsimshian followers] to the sites to escape a smallpox epidemic. The settlement was prosperous, and Duncan's ideas were widely recognized, respected, and imitated. However, the community split when the Anglican Church at Victoria sent a new bishop to Metlakatla who undermined Duncan's authority and disagreed with the idea of secular progress in the Christian community and its failure to offer communion to converts. In 1887 the divided villagers took sides, and many Tsimshian established another independent Christian utopia at New Metlakatla, Annette Island, Alaska." TRAHAIR, Utopias and Utopians p.259. [62295].

Price: $100.00

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