Helicon Home Colony was an experimental community formed by author Upton Sinclair in Englewood, New Jersey, United States, with proceeds from his novel The Jungle.
[1] Sinclair's initial plan for the colony included farms, a communal kitchen, nurseries for children and other services to make it entirely self-sufficient, and would contain about 100 houses on a 400-acre lot.
However, editors also raised concerns over the funds required to purchase as much land as was initially planned, as well as the challenge of operating on an entirely communal basis.
Following the model proposed by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her book The Home, Sinclair sought "authors, artists, and musicians, editors and teachers and professional men"[3] who wanted to avoid the drudgeries of domestic life.
[3] In a letter published in The New York Times on July 16, 1906, Sinclair outlined his plan and announced a public meeting to be held the following evening at the Berkeley Lyceum on 44th Street.
However, the editors raised concerns that the funds needed to purchase land in proximity to New York City would require substantial outlays beyond the means of most.
The editorial questioned the practicability of raising children on a communal basis, noting that "There would be more fun in that spectacle -- for outsiders -- than in the traditional barrel of monkeys.
"According to Perdita Buchan, writing in the 2007 book Utopia, New Jersey: Travels in the Nearest Eden, Sinclair himself quietly returned one rejected applicant's money, apologizing that the other members had voted against allowing Jewish people to join the Helicon Home Colony" even though Sinclair himself "owned 160 of Helicon's 230 shares" and "ostensibly controlled about 70% of the board's vote and could have overruled anyone if he had thought it appropriate.