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AS IT MAY BE by Rogers, Bessie Story - 1905

by Rogers, Bessie Story

AS IT MAY BE by Rogers, Bessie Story - 1905

AS IT MAY BE

by Rogers, Bessie Story

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1905. Very good plus. Scarce first edition of this tale of a woman who dies in 1905 and finds herself in a future utopia. After her death in 1905, protagonist Mary Tillman wakes up alone, feeling "queer and unnatural." She soon learns that she has traveled 1000 years in the future, filled with incredible social and technological advances. With poverty, disease, and even death no longer a danger, the people of 2905 are vegetarians and have developed marvelous electric flying machines and weather-predicting devices. They are also quite curious to hear of the hardships of people from Tillman's time: "'Do you mean to tell me,' interrupted Mr. Linden, 'that in your day people were very sick and suffered - then spent fortunes in trying to get well?'"
Within the larger wave of utopian fiction that enjoyed popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Rogers here joins the ranks of other women writers (e.g. Mary Griffith, Annie Denton Cridge, Mary E. Bradley Lane, Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett, and of course Charlotte Perkins Gilman) who formed utopias that directly addressed the lives of women. AS IT MAY BE highlights the perceptions, experiences, and reactions of its woman protagonist throughout her tour of the future. Tillman is fascinated by self-propelled baby carriages, paper plates (no need for dishwashing!), and the in-home elevators of 2905: "many women were actually tired out in my day, by going up and down stairs."
Rogers (1874-1963?) apparently lived her whole life in Massachusetts. The 1920 census lists her occupation as "Music teacher," noting further: "girl's lessons at home." She paid to have AS IT MAY BE published herself and the book is therefore understandably scarce, with only three institutional holdings according to OCLC. A fascinating look at the idealized technological world for an early-20th century middle-class woman. 7.75'' x 5.25''. Original pictorial blue cloth with green and orange designs, gilt lettering to spine. Blue topstain, edges machine-deckle. Title page with orange accents. 84 pages. Small ink gift note to front flyleaf. Corners and spine ends with light bumping, a few small spots of rubbing to boards. A bit of toning to front hinge. Sharp and clean.
  • Bookseller Type Punch Matrix US (US)
  • Book Condition Used - Very good plus
  • Quantity Available 1
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Publisher Richard G. Badger
  • Place of Publication Boston
  • Date Published 1905
  • Keywords 20th century,US American,Woman Author,Utopia/Dystopia,Science Fiction,Pictorial Cloth