William Dwight Porter Bliss (1856 - 1926) was an American Christian Socialist writer, editor, and activist. He is remembered as a pioneer historian of the world socialist movement.
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William Dwight Porter Bliss was born in Constantinople, Turkey on August 20, 1856, the son of Christian missionaries there. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover and the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut.
He acted as pastor following his graduation in 1882. He first served Congregationalist communities and then Episcopalian churches.
In the 1880s Bliss became interested in Christian Socialism, a movement which sought to apply the teachings of Christ to modern social difficulties, caused, they believed, by industrialization and urbanization. In 1889 Bliss organised the first Christian Socialist Society in the United States. He was also the editor of The Dawn, the official magazine of the society.
In 1887 Bliss attempted to become the Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts but lost the election. He had stood on the Labor Party ticket. He served as an investigator for the Bureau of Labor.
Bliss lectured extensively on labor and social reform. He edited and compiled many publications, including the Encyclopædia of Social Reform in 1897.
In World War I, he did educational work among French and Belgian soldiers interned in Switzerland.
After the War, Bliss returned to the United States and preached in New York City until his death in that city on October 8, 1926. Bliss is honored together with Richard Theodore Ely with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on October 8.