The Magnificent Ambersons

Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons is the second novel in the Growth trilogy, which includes The Turmoil (1915) and The Midlander (1923, retitled National Avenue in 1927). The novel and trilogy trace the growth of the United States through the declining fortunes of three generations of the aristocratic Amberson family in an upscale neighborhood, inspired by Tarkington's hometown of Indianapolis and the neighborhood he once lived in, Woodruff Place. Set between the end of the Civil War and the early part of the 20th century, a period of rapid industrialization and socio-economic change in America, the decline of the Ambersons is contrasted with the rising fortunes of industrial tycoons and other new-money families, who derived power not from family names but by action.

The Magnificent Ambersons won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize for novel and is ranked 99th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. In 1942, Orson Welles directed a film version, also titled The Magnificent Ambersons.

Doubleday, Page first published The Magnificant Ambersons in 1918. The title page and copyright page of the 516-page first editions state “1918” with no additional printings listed. The first issue dust jacket states the original price of $1.40.