The Chief Humanitarians of the Nineteenth Century, by Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace : Alfred Wallace : A. R. Wallace :
Russel Wallace : Alfred Russell Wallace (sic)

A Symposium on Humanitarians (S659a: 1908)

Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: In late 1907 Wallace was contacted and asked to submit a list of his ten favorite ten humanitarians of the nineteenth century for a special feature that was planned. Both the request letter and the one-page handwritten manuscript from which this transcription is drawn are part of the Alfred Russel Wallace collection at the Natural History Museum (London), items WP1/8/218. Wallace's list (but not his additional comments) was printed on page 278 of the August 1908 issue of The Medico-Pharmaceutical Critic and Guide along with the lists submitted by dozens of others; the next year the whole thing was reset and printed as a separate by The Altrurians, New York. To link directly to this page, connect with: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S659A.htm

The Chief Humanitarians of the Nineteenth Century,
in the opinion of Alfred Russel Wallace

1. Robert Owen, of New Lanark, the truest philanthropist, one of the wisest and most practical of workers.

2. Leo Tolstoy, a grand writer, and perhaps the only true follower of Christ.

3. Edward Bellamy, the first and best expounder of theoretical and practical Socialism.

4. Robert Blatchford, the greatest English exponent of Socialism and Humanity.

5. Elizabeth Fry, the great Prison reformer.

6. John Ruskin, the great prose poet and ideal Socialist.

7. Shelley, the poet of freedom and nature.

8. Walt Whitman, the poet and friend of Man.

9. William Watson, the poet of international Justice.

10. Edwin Markham, the poet of Brotherhood.

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