Life And Labour Of The People In London : Edited By Charles Booth. by BOOTH, Charles

London And New York : Macmillan and Co. 1892-1897 0. A scarce 10 volume set in the original matching cloth bindings: 84 tables (2 folding); 10 maps (6 folding); half-title; a list of errata at the end of Vol. IX.; a 130-page appendix in Vol. II.; - Vol. X. consists of 5 folded maps in a slip-case to accompany the other volumes.All volumes dark blue-green cloth. Corners rubbed and bumped. Smooth spines (a little dulled) with gilt titles. Top page edges gilt, other page edges roughly cut. Inner hinges carefully strengthened, all bindings tight and boards firmly attached. Light foxing to endpapers, and first and last leaves, otherwise clean text and illustrations throughout. Some pages un-cut. All 5 maps contained in the slip-case (Vol. X.) are present and complete. Edges browned and small tears along the folds. A very good set of this monumental work. The forerunner of the national census. 10 volumes. 8vo. 8.5" x 6.0" x 1.5" (21cm x 15cm x 3.5cm). Pagination: Vol. I. 1892 : pp.6/[2pp.]/pp.320; Vol. II. 1892 : [6pp.]/pp.235/[64pp.] ; Vol. III. 1892 : [8pp.]/pp.306/[pp.4] ; Vol. IV. 1893 : [8pp.]/pp.354 ; Vol. V. 1895 : [8pp.]/pp.416; Vol. VI. 1865 : [8pp.]/pp.383/[1p.] ; Vol. VII. 1896 ; pp.8/pp.499 ; Vol. VIII. 1896 : [8pp.]/pp.480 ; Vol. IX. 1897 : pp.8/pp.454/[1p.] . ** "Life and Labour of the People in London was a multi-volume book by Charles Booth which provided a survey of the lives and occupations of the working classes of late nineteenth century London. The first edition was published in two volumes as Life and Labour of the People, Vol. I (1889) and Labour and Life of the People, Vol II (1891). The second edition was entitled Life and Labour of the People in London, and was produced in 9 volumes 1892-97. A third edition, running to a grand total of seventeen volumes appeared 1902-3. A noteworthy feature of the study was the production of maps describing poverty (see illustration on the right). Levels of wealth and poverty found by the research's investigators being mapped out on a street by street basis. The note books used to carry out this investigation are held at the Archives Division of the British Library of Political and Economic Science (London School of Economics and Political Science). In 1884 Charles Booth undertook to assist in the allocation of the Lord Mayor of London's Relief Fund, by analysing census returns. From this he discovered the highly unsatisfactory nature of the censuses, and would later become a member of the official committee in charge of the 1891 census and make a number of recommendations for its improvement. In the autumn of 1885 Henry Hyndman published the results of an inquiry into poverty conducted by the Social Democratic Federation, which claimed to show that up to twenty-five percent of the population of London lived in extreme poverty. In early 1886 Booth visited Hyndman, who records in his autobiography that Booth told him that "in his opinion we had grossly overstated the case" and that he would himself be undertaking an inquiry into the condition of workers in London. The first meeting to organise this inquiry was held on 17 April 1886: the work would last until 1903. The work would absorb both Charles and Mary Booth and employ a team of social investigators including, at various times, Beatrice Webb, Arthur Baxter, Clara Collet, David Schloss, George Duckworth, Hubert Llewllyn Smith, Jesse Argyle, and Ernest Aves. .