Catherine Helen Spence (1825-1910) was a novelist, social reformer and feminist. Born in Scotland, she came to Australia with her family in 1840. Her first novel was published in 1854.

She had a broad interest in political and social issues - including the co-operative movement. In her autobiography Spence states: "For the co-operative movement I had always felt the keenest sympathy. I saw in it the liberation of the small wage-earner from the toils of the middle-men. I thought moreover that the incentive to thrift so strongly encouraged by co-operative societies would be a tremendous gain to the community as well as to the individual."

Her last work of fiction was A Week in the Future. According to Susan Magarey, this work was inspired  by Jane Hume Clapperton's  (1832-1914) Scientic Meliorism and the Evolution of Happiness which was published in 1885. Spence died before her autobiography was completed and there is no reference to A Week in the Future.

A Week in the Future was serialised in Centennial Magazine : An Australiuan Monthly from December 1888 to July 1889. It was not published in book form until 1987.

A Week in the Future was written when Spence was 62.  In this futuristic novel, a 62 year old spinster is mysteriously transported to the London of 1988  through the hypnotic powers of her doctor and a potion. The narrative is set within a week and the novel proceeds with observations on the new social order

It is clear that Spence the social reformer was committed to voluntary co-operation rather than State socialism. Each day of the week covers different aspects of the new order. Two of these are Co-operative Homes and Co-operative Production and Distribution.

The other days of the week cover Childhood and Education, Marriage & the Relations of the Sexes, Government and Laws, Literature and Art, Music, Drama and Sport and Religion and Morals.

In 1901 Spence was asked to assist in the formation of a woman's co-operative clothing factory and " I was glad to do what I could to further an extension in  South Australia of the movement, which, from its inception in older countries, had made so strong an appeal to my reason"

"A band of women workers were prepared to associate for the mutual benefit of the operates in the shirtmaking and clothing trades. Under the title of the South Australian Co-operative Clothing Company Limited, they proposed to take over and carry on a small private factory, owned by one of t6hemselves, which had found it difficult to compete against large firms working with the latest machinery."

According to Magarey (1985) the co-operative factory continued until 1913 when increased competition forced it into liquidation.

Magarey (1985) notes that Spence approved village settlements when three-fourths of her friends regarded them as unnatural and communistic. Co-operation was preferred by Spence because it depended on voluntary effort - not compulsion.

Ever Yours also includes an Introduction, a family tree and sources of notes and additional information and a 15 page Index. The brief Introduction refers to the future-vision of A Week in the Future but does not pursue the co-operative interests. The Index includes six co-operative specific references - A Week in the Future (3), the Co-operative Clothing Factory (2) and the Co-operative Housekeeping Association (1).

Catherine Helen Spence
Ever Yours
An Autobiography (1825-1910), Diary (1894) and Some Correspondence (1894-1910)
Edited by Susan Magarey with Barbara Wall, Mary Lyons and Maryan Beams
Wakefield Press, 2005

Wakefield Press
http://www.wakefiueldpress.com.au 

Further readings:

Biographical Dictionary of Women, Penguin, 1998, pp 599-600

Cooper, Janet Great Australians: Catherine Spence, Oxford University Press, 1972

Catherine Helen Spence, Edited with and Introduction by Helen Thomson, Clara Morison, half the Autobiography, and journalistic contributions on literature, social, legal, political and religious matters; University of Queensland Press, 1987

Magarey, Susan Unbridling the Tongues of Women - a biography of Catherine Helen Spence, Hale & Iremonger, 1985

Spence, Catherine Helen A Week in the Future with an Introduction & Notes by Lesley Durrell Ljungdahl,  Hale & Iremonger Pty Limited, 1987

Spence, Catherine Helen in The Australian Encyclopaedia, Australian Geographic Pty Ltd, Sixth Edition, Vol 7, p 2777