THE 1851 PUBLICATION OF THE ONEIDA COMMUNITY, "THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF ALL AMERICAN UTOPIAS"

NOYES, J.H. The Circular. Devoted to the Sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Brooklyn: November 6, 1851 – October 31, 1852. Folio, unbound and stab-sewn; pp. 208. $700.

First volume, weekly issues 1-52, of this magazine from the Oneida community, among the most successful—and scandalous—of the many utopian communities of Victorian America.

The Circular was one of a series of periodicals "edited by J.H. Noyes and published by the various utopian communities with which he was associated… The Free Church Circular was issued from Oneida 1847-51. Its plant was destroyed by fire in 1851, and a new series under the title Circular, with entirely new numbering, was begun in Brooklyn, November 6, 1851, published there for a year as a weekly, changing then to semiweekly publication; after two annual volumes, it was moved to Oneida… John Humphrey Noyes was its leading spirit… Its peculiar brand of spiritualism, Noyes's free love doctrines, and communism were its chief topics" (Mott, History of American Magazines, 207n). Noyes' "genius for organization and his dominating personality made Oneida Community the most successful of all American Utopias" (DAB). Lomazow, American Periodicals 568.

Some minor chipping to edges. Very good condition.