THE MAKING OF AMERICANS; BEING A HISTORY OF A FAMILY'S PROGRESS

Paris: Contact Editions, Three Mountains Press, 1925. First Edition. Hardcover. Square Octavo, 925 pages. In Very Good minus condition. Rebound in olive cloth covers with no text. Inch-long tear along the hinge at the front head of the spine, a half-inch tear along the hinge at the rear head of the spine, fraying at the tail of the spine, boards have significant discoloration and shelf wear to all edges and corners, and warping to the fore-edge of the front cover. Shelf wear to the bottom edge of text block, age-toning throughout. Text block has sporadic penciled notes from a previous owner in margins and on front free end papers, and several pages are loose, but all remain intact. Loose extract of Edith Sitwell's review of The Making of Americans from the April 1926 issue of "The Criterion" journal laid in. Original brown wrapping bound-in. One of 500 copies printed by Maurice Darantiere for McAlmon's Contact Press in 1925. CX Consignment. Shelved in Case 2. Written between 1903 and 1911, Stein's The Making of Americans did not see publication until 1925 when McAlmon's Contact Press released it in an edition of only 500 copies (of which the copy on offer here is one). The printing was undertaken by Maurice Darantiere, who also printed Joyce's Ulysses for Sylvia Beach. The novel follows two families over the course of three generations (making use of numerous autobiographical elements), and employs Stein's trademark spare language and repetitious prose. These compositional strategies force the reader to confront the function and nature of prose, making the "fictional" narrative as much about the story told as about the act of writing. This is interest is further underscored by Stein's metafictional technique of including recurring commentaries and meditations on the writing of the novel itself. 1346112. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.