The Harbinger, devoted to Social and Political Progress. Vol. II [and] Vol. III, 1845-46

Two volumes. Quartos (8¼" x 11¼"). Both volumes are complete with 26 weekly issues. Vol. II: pp. iv, 412 (December 13, 1845 – June 6, 1846); Vol. III: pp. iv, 412 (June 13, 1846 – December 5, 1846). Bound in contemporary half morocco and marbled paper over boards, gilt spines, edges lightly sprinkled. Contemporary ownership signature of "W.B. Brown" on the front free endpaper of each volume. Both volumes are in very good condition with overall rubbing and some scuffing on the spine of vol. II, scattered foxing, and two early stitched repairs: on the lower corner of one leaf in vol. II (pp. 201-202), and diagonally across one leaf in vol. III (pp. 399-400). Two well-preserved volumes of George Ripley’s pioneering and important radical magazine. Published and printed at the utopian Brook Farm community in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, the magazine was well ahead of its time, particularly in its advocacy of women's rights, and featured in its pages many of the country's best critical and literary figures. As noted in a recent exhibition at Yale University, America and the Utopian Dream, the Brook Farm community was founded by George and Sophia Ripley in 1841 and "began as a product of the transcendentalist movement and a showplace for Christian socialism. The commune had more than 120 members at its highest point," including a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, "and was widely regarded as an intellectual center. After four years of existence, however, the members changed its purpose to that of a Fourierist phalanx. When the headquarters of Fourierism moved from New York City to Brook Farm in 1845, the Fourierist Magazine, the *Phalanx*, was renamed the *Harbinger* to be published on the Brook Farm printing press." The *Harbinger* received the full-time attention of Ripley and his associates Charles A. Dana and John S. Dwight. Dana later achieved celebrity as editor of the *New York Sun*, and Dwight went on to become one of the earliest and foremost music critics in the United States. The magazine offered an alternative to transcendentalists who admired Emerson’s romantic perfectionism but rejected his belief in renovation through individualism and self-culture. The contributors to the *Harbinger* instead emphasized social reform and cooperation which would elevate the individual while benefiting the entire community; the magazine quickly became the most important "Associationist" journal in America. Also included among the many notable contributors, in addition to Ripley, Dana, and Dwight, are Albert Brisbane, who first introduced the theories of Charles Fourier in the United States; William H. Channing, a key figure in the early years of the woman's rights movement; and M.E. Lazarus, an important American individualist anarchist who advocated for free love. The original owner of both volumes, "W.B. Brown" was related to John Stillman Brown, a Unitarian minister and member of Brook Farm who acted as instructor in Theosophical and Practical Agriculture. J.S. Brown was the husband of Mary Ripley, George Ripley's cousin. Volume three has two additional small owner's signatures written in light pencil on the outer margin of p. 70: "Mary G. Brown"; and p. 68: "E.H. Brown". An attractive, scarce set of two consecutive volumes in the original bindings.…