Merrie England is an influential collection of essaysonsocialismbyRobert Blatchford under the pseudonym "Nunquam", published in 1893. The first issue by Nunquam was priced at one shilling.[1] It sold over two million copies worldwide.[2] It was said that for every one convert to socialism made by Karl Marx's Das Kapital there were a hundred converts made by “Merrie England” – though even this may be an underestimate.[3]
The book received rebuttals including:
R. Nemo, Labour and Luxury: A Reply to 'Merrie England' London: Walter Scott, 1895
Robert Roberts, England's Ruin, Or John Smith's Answer to Mr. Blatchford's Plea for Socialism 1895[4]
^Oxford Companion to English Literature; edited by Margaret Drabble, Oxford University Press, 2006, (p. 109).
^Gregory Claeys - Imperial Sceptics: British Critics of Empire, 1850–1920ISBN1139492551 2010; p. 173 "Blatchford's popularity – from which his proximity to the heart of the labour movement might be inferred – is undisputed. ... his rise was meteoric.175 His best-selling Merrie England (1893) sold more than a million copies; it was said that 'for every convert made by “Das Kapital,” there were a hundred made by “Merrie England”'; the actual ratio was probably nearer one to..."
^Jason D Martinek Socialism and Print Culture in America, 1897–1920 1317320778 2015 p156 R. Nemo, Labour and Luxury: A Reply to 'Merrie England' (London: Walter Scott, 1895), pp. 90–1. 71. Ibid., p. 183. 72. Ibid., p. 190. 73. R. Roberts, England's Ruin, Or John Smith's Answer to Mr. Blatchford's Plea for Socialism, vol. 2 (London: ...
