Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
STEIN, Gertrude.. The Making of Americans.. Three Mountains Press, [Dijon, 1925.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Description: 925 pp. 4to, handsomely rebound in half brown morocco with gilt spine. First edition sheets; possibly one of 100 copies issued for America, but without any indication of the same. Front board neatly reattached, otherwise very attractive.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: 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.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, one of 500 copies printed by Maurice Darantière in Dijon, of which 100 sets were sent to the US to be bound as the first American edition. Inscribed by Stein to front flyleaf: "For Miss Ethel Friedman / Gtde Stein". Bound in three-quarter maroon morocco and red boards, gilt spine with raised bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, with the original tan wrappers bound in, half-title and colophon also present. Very good, with rubbing to leather at spine hinges and a few scratches to the spine, interior wrappers with toning and damp staining, some staining to endpapers and fore edge. Overall, an attractively rebound copy of the scarce first edition published in Paris, which is also inscribed by Stein. Gertrude Steins second novel The Making of Americans is an experimental work employing the modernist style. Stein traces the genealogy and history of the fictional Hersland and Dehning families, but by her own unique approach, she is able to tell a universal story. A literary Cubist, Stein experimented with sparse plot and dialogue, using repetition and a limited vocabulary. Drawing stylistic inspiration from painters Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne, Stein herself compared the work to James Joyces Ulysses. Written over a period of eight years in the early 20th century, during which Stein and her set were the arbiters of literature and art in Europe, the novel was not published until almost fifteen years after it was written.
Seller: B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.