A Traveler From Altruria - Consequences

Consequences

Inspired by the Utopian ideas expressed in A Traveler from Altruria, in 1894 Unitarian minister Edward Biron Payne and thirty of his followers founded Altruria, a short-lived Utopian community in Sonoma County, California; short-lived presumably because altruism—defined as an unselfish concern for the welfare of others—does not lend itself well to compulsion or force, but springs from the hearts of each individual. Thomas Merton once stated that "he solution is love as the highest expression of man's spirituality and freedom" and that "ope of attaining true freedom by purely political means has become an insane delusion."

Howells would eventually create an Altrurian trilogy, following the first book with Letters of an Altrurian Traveller (1904) and Through the Eye of the Needle (1907).