The Nationalist (United States)

The January 1888 publication of the utopian socialist economic novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887, by Edward Bellamy was greeted with acclaim in a small circle of intellectual society, primarily in Boston, home of the book's publisher, Tichenor and Company.

"[4] The first regular meeting of this remade organization, the First Nationalist Club of Boston, was held on December 1, 1888, attended by 25 interested participants, with Charles E. Bowers elected chairman.

[4] A committee of 5 was established to create a plan for a permanent organization, including Boston Herald editorial writer Sylvester Baxter, Willard, Devereaux, Bowers, and Christian socialist clergyman W.D.P.

[4] The genteel First Club of Boston would have 107 members by the end of 1889, adding to its ranks author Edward Everett Hale, magazine editor William Dean Howells, and prominent socialist writer Laurence Gronlund.

"[9] The publication's demise marked the end of the early "philosophical" phase of the Nationalist movement and the rise in influence of those seeking concrete political action to implement Bellamy's vision in the United States.