(1850-1897)  Born in Chicoppee Falls, MA, Bellamy was the son of a Baptist Minister.  His best known work, Looking Backward, explored Boston, MA in the 21st century.  In the novel, he writes of communal utopias and living perfection for the masses.  Bellamy's idea of a utopia focused on the benefit of an entire community and embraced many people working towards one common goal.  Bellamy's ideal was to have a community of people working towards a common end and working for one another.  Where Thoreau, another writer who valued a different utopian state, sought individual perfection and Emerson, a writer who wanted nothing to do with utopias sought to rid the world of conformity, Bellamy wanted to establish a society in which everyone worked for one another and no one job was more important that another.

Bellamy dreams of a Utopia in which money and time are not wasted. People who live within this society are free to follow the business venture of their choice and work where they want to work. He realizes that if there is a common goal, then ultimately a society can flourish with little economic problems. People do jobs that they are able to do and saw everyone's individual working ability as a way to reach the ultimate goal of the community as a whole. Despite the differences in jobs, everyone was working together.  Think of a society in which everyone put their personal quarrels and goals aside or better yet, had no other goals than that of everyone else in the state.  Using Bellamy's logic, work and progress would come much faster than it does in any other society today.  What about a life void of personal want seems attractive?  The idea that many working as one and getting something done with efficiency and to the extent that it needs to be done would be ideal if you could fill a community with people who all want the same thing.  Bellamy seems to think that this is entirely possible.  In his novel, the main character is in the future (which is oddly enough now the past to the reader) and sees the need for a utopian community such as this.  The government rules all and Bellamy does not approve.  Much like many citizens today, Bellamy is attracted to a society in which the people rule and the people get done what they want to get done.  No one is paid more than another despite what jobs there are able to do, and they are free of a government bearing down on them with taxes and work ethics.
Edward Bellamy represents the voice of those who rally together with the hopes that one common goal can be realized.  In his society, we would not have the worries that we do today.  Money is not an issue because everyone is paid the same amount for their work.  This way, people who do not have as much skill in certain jobs, do not have to do anything that they are not able to and do not have to worry about losing or never finding work.  Everyone is useful and everyone works.  In short, perfect lives make up the perfect society...if people are willing to conform to the set of standards, theories and practices of the utopia.  If it were to work in the favor of all involved with the labor, Bellamy's idea is a great one for some, but a disaster for others.