Is Mankind Advancing

MARTIN, Mrs John, [pseudo. [Prestonia Mann Martin]]

Published by The Baker & Taylor Company, London, 1910

About this Item

First Edition. Inscribed and Signed by Author. Inscribed to Keir Hardy signed by Prestonia mann Martin Grymes Hill, Staten Island, New York and dated 21 April 1911. DESCRIPTION: Green cloth Language: English. Book Condition: Poor: Wear to corners, edges and spine ends. Loss of colour to front spine edge and sections of the spine and boards. Firmly bound with toned endpapers with heavier toning / light staining to front endpaper gutter. Binding starting to ease and slacken between gatherings. Light toning to most deep gutters. Inscription to ffep. lightly toned pages with occasional marks and spots. DJ Condition: No DJ. Pages xv, 302. Size: 8vo 21.5cm by 14cm. PROVENANCE: INSCRIPTION: J. Keir Hardie M.P. James Keir Hardie (1856-1915) Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served as its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908. Born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire he started working at the age of seven and worked in the Lanarkshire coal mines. With a background in preaching, he became known as a talented public speaker and was chosen as a spokesman for his fellow miners. In 1879, Hardie was elected leader of a miners union in Hamilton and organised a National Conference of Miners in Dunfermline. He subsequently led miners strikes in Lanarkshire (1880) and Ayrshire (1881). He turned to journalism to make ends meet, and from 1886 was a full-time union organiser as secretary of the Ayrshire Miners Union. Hardie initially supported William Gladstones Liberal Party, but later concluded that the working class needed its own party. He first stood for parliament in 1888 as an independent, and later that year helped form the Scottish Labour Party. Hardie won the English seat of West Ham South as an independent candidate in 1892, and helped to form the Independent Labour Party (ILP) the following year. He lost his seat in 1895, but was re-elected to Parliament in 1900 for Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. In the same year he helped to form the union-based Labour Representation Committee, which was later renamed the Labour Party. After the 1906 election, Hardie was chosen as the Labour Partys first parliamentary leader. He resigned in 1908 in favour of Arthur Henderson, and spent his remaining years campaigning for causes such as womens suffrage, self-rule for India, and opposition to World War I. He died in 1915 while attempting to organise a pacifist general strike and has called him "Labours greatest pioneer and its greatest hero". Seller Inventory # 9564

Bibliographic Details

Title: Is Mankind Advancing

Publisher: The Baker & Taylor Company, London

Publication Date: 1910

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Poor

Dust Jacket Condition: No DJ

Signed: Inscribed and Signed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.