[UTOPIAS] [EUGENICS] BLANCHARD, Charles Elton

A New Day Dawns. A Brief History of the Altruistic Era (1930 to 2162 A.D.) A.E.200. By Charles Elton Blanchard, M.D. writing for Jane Bradshaw, Historical Section, the National Library Service, Washington, D.C. A Diagnosis and a Possible Prognosis of the Ills of Our Present Social Order

Youngstown, OH: Medical Success Press, 1932. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (23cm). Red cloth hardcover; gilt spine titles; red publisher's top-stain; dustjacket; 191,(2)pp. Darkening to endpapers; spine gilt oxidized, else a tight, Near Fine copy. Text partially unopened. In the scarce original dustwrapper, priced $3.00 on front panel (as issued), somewhat soiled at folds and edges with slight erosion at crown of spine panel; still complete and presentable, Very Good.

Future utopia by this eccentric Ohio physician and philosopher whose mostly self-published works ranged from Lost Race fiction to straightforward medical treatises including The Epitome of Ambulent Proctology (1925) and Office Practice for the General Practician (1934). In the current work, Blanchard (writing in the voice of a woman librarian looking back from 22nd century America) envisions a future world made perfect through collectivization, land reform, the emancipation of women and – sigh – as in so many technological utopias of the period, Eugenics: "...Can you imagine a greater folly [than asylums and prisons]?....making more and more criminals, more unfits and misfits being born each year, then burdening society with their care and support? When Altruism gained power we blotted out those hopelessly unfit to live...we removed the cause of crime and purged the nation of its defective taint..." Such "blotting out" was a common dream among a certain class of pre-war scientists and physicians, turned into a horrifying reality by the Third Reich. An uncommon work, especially so in the dust jacket which is rarely seen. HANNA 362. NEGLEY 116. SARGENT p.98.

Price: $350.00

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