The following article is an attempt at presenting reception of Edward Bellamy, one of the most popular nineteenth-century American authors. Special attention was paid to his bestseller Looking Backward 2000–1887, which achieved, in a very short period of time, sales level over one million copies (only in the U.S.). It was the third-largest bestseller of its time, after Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. This utopian science-fiction novel influenced a large number of Americans and was one of the few books ever published that created almost immediately on its appearance a political mass movement known as “Nationalist Clubs”. These Clubs were an organized network of socialist political groups which emerged in an effort to make real the socialist and nationalist ideas. Bellamy’s novel was also extraordinary popular outside the U.S. including in Poland. It has been translated into about 30 languages ​​and published in more than 40 countries.