The Making of Americans. de STEIN, Gertrude - 1934: The Hersland Family. Preface by Bernard Faÿ.

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company,, 1934. A heroic achievement of writing, a near-impossible feat of reading First edition thus, first printing, signed by the author on the half-title. This work was first published in book form in Paris in 1925 and in the US in 1926. The present edition is edited and shortened by Stein's close friend Bernard Faÿ (1893-1978), who contributes the preface. Excerpts of the novel first appeared in 1924 in the Transatlantic Review, after Ernest Hemingway convinced the editor, Ford Madox Ford, to accept Stein's work. The following year, the entire novel was published by Contact Press in Paris, in a limited edition of 500 copies, of which 100 were exported for an American edition published by Albert and Charles Boni in 1926. It wasn't until 1966 that the full novel appeared again, published by Something Else Press. Bernard Faÿ and Stein were lifelong friends; Faÿ has been reported as saying that the three most important people that he had met were Picasso, Gertrude Stein, and Andre Gide (Kingsbury). Faÿ was the primary translator of Stein's works into French, and despite his anti-Semitism, he protected her and Alice B. Toklas during the Nazi occupation of France; Stein wrote a letter on Faÿ's behalf when he was tried as a Nazi collaborator, and later contributed financially to his escape from prison. Loosely inserted into this copy is a 20-page New Yorker article, "Someone Says Yes To It, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and The Making of Americans", by Janet Malcolm, 5 June 2005. In the article, she praises the vision of the book, while lamenting its length: "It is more a monument than a text, a heroic achievement of writing, a near-impossible feat of reading". Octavo. Original pale brown cloth, spine and front cover lettered in reddish-brown, top edge red. Housed in a custom red cloth chemise and quarter morocco slipcase. Light soiling to top edge of front cover, a few trivial marks to foot of spine and edges, lower edges of boards a touch rubbed. A near-fine copy in jacket, tiny chips to spine ends and corners, two short closed tears to head of rear panel and front panel, rear panel a touch soiled, light rubbing and creasing to extremities, very bright indeed. Edward M. Kingsbury, "Gertrude Stein Articulates at Last", The New York Times, 3 September 1933.