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Recording Angel

Edwin Arnold Brenholtz

"The Recording Angel," by Edwin Arnold Brenholtz, is one of the earliest examples of an American proletarian novel, a work intended to promote social reform or political revolution among the working classes. The story's themes of economic inequality between producers and consumers, political collusion within the upper classes, and the loss of the middle class ring particularly true today, especially in a global context. Billed as a "romance of the future," the plot of this fictional account of class struggle between workingmen and trust magnates of the new industrial economy hinges on a unique electric machine, which did not exist in 1905, but is quite common today. Besides writing at least four books, the author was a prolific poet and frequent contributor to the International Socialist Review. He corresponded with a variety of personalities, including the poet Edwin Markham, labor leaders Theodore and Eugene Debs, controversial activist and minister George D. Herron, and writer Samuel Clemens. - Summary by Andru Bemis