Chicopee Falls (USA), 1850-1898, of Calvinist Baptist father and mother, the popular American writer in New York studied law, but soon abandoned the practice to devote himself to writing, publishing for various peródicos first and then several short stories and novels as Dr. Heidenhoff's Process (1880), Miss Ludington's sister (1884), Equality (1897), or The Duke of Stockbridge (1900).

Founder of the socialist journal New Nation (1891), his ideas and the sense of injustice in the capitalist economic system led him to write his most famous novel, 2000 (1888), in which certain model of state capitalism is defended and market socialism. The book also inspired several utopian communities, influenced a large number of intellectuals, and appears reviewed in many of the major Marxist writings of his time.