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The Golden Book of Springfield

by Vachel LINDSAY (1879 - 1931)

Chapter I - The Campbellite, the Florist, and the Hostess

The Golden Book of Springfield is American poet Vachel Lindsay's strange and mystical odyssey through the Springfield, Illinois of 2018, where the residents of that city strive to turn their home into a democratic utopia. It is a "Springfield a hundred years hence," a dreamlike space of spiritual and social awakenings. But when the threat of international war begins to loom over the horizon, the citizens of Springfield must find new ways to protect their city and keep it a "practical City of God." This is Vachel Lindsay's only long-form narrative work and a fascinating entry into the utopian fiction subgenre that came about after the publication of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward. - Summary by Chuck Williamson

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Listen next episodes of The Golden Book of Springfield:
Chapter II - The Prognosticator's Club , Chapter III - How People in 1920 Think the Book Will Come, in 2018 , Chapter IV - History of the Michaels , Chapter IX - The Beginning of the Flying Machine Riots , Chapter V - I Myself Enter into the Springfield of 2018 , Chapter VI - Kopensky versus Boone , Chapter VII - The Drug Stores, Coffee Houses, and Dance Halls , Chapter VIII - The Springfield Flag , Chapter X - The End of the Flying Machine Riots , Chapter XI - St. Friend, and His Two Religious Orders , Chapter XII - The Yellow Dance Halls Are Abolished , Chapter XIII - Surto Hurdenburg is Lynched , Chapter XIV - In the House of the Man From Singapore , Chapter XIX - Avanel and I Ascend to the Jungles of Heaven , Chapter XV - Further Experiences in That Strange Mansion , Chapter XVI - The Return of Joseph Bartholdi Michael , Chapter XVII - The Lynching of Boone. The Interregnum of the Diary. The Golden Book Appears , Chapter XVIII - St. Friend and Avanel Read From the Golden Book