A GOODLY HERITAGE

by Pierrepont B. Noyes ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

This is an autobiography of a man and a movement the Oneida Community, told in a pleasant, easy-going, warm manner. The Oneida Community was founded in central New York State by the author's father, John Humphrey Noyes as a ""Bible Communism"" experiment in 1848, in which ownership of personal property and marriage was abolished. The Community thrived for 30 years, broke up in 1881 -- bringing the generation of the younger Noyes, then 13, for the first time, face-to-face with the realities of the outside world, for example, which regarded them as illegitimate. Noyes attended Colgate University, was enrolled at Harvard, had to withdraw when his mother became ill. He never returned to school, became a salesman in New York City and along the East coast for Oneida products which were, at the time, steel goods, canned products and silverware. He took over the general management of Oneida, planned its growth similar to John Ruskin's ideal for workers' communities -- a semi-socialist, manufacturing institution, and accented its line of ""Community Silver"". In 1917 he resigned its management, retaining its presidency, to serve the war effort in Washington, and became Rhineland Commissioner in 1919 at Bernard Baruch's insistence. In 1950, at 80 years of age he resigned the Oneida presidency having brought that experiment through a remarkable evolution. An admirable story told with restraint and a certain nostalgia which is altogether forgivable.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Rinehart

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION