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Lot 90
TYPESCRIPT OF AMERICA AND AMERICANS. STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. Typed Carbon, "America and the Americans by John Steinbeck," 146 pp, 4to, n.p., [1966], housed in brown paper clamp folder annotated on upper cover by Steinbeck "Second carbon / of / Second typescript,"
25 October 2023, 14:00 EDT
New YorkUS$3,000 - US$5,000
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TYPESCRIPT OF AMERICA AND AMERICANS.
STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. Typed Carbon, "America and the Americans by John Steinbeck," 146 pp, 4to, n.p., [1966], housed in brown paper clamp folder annotated on upper cover by Steinbeck "Second carbon / of / Second typescript," pages toned and thumbed with some offset from carbon sheets, edges bumped, covers thumbsoiled and worn, upper margin of cover trimmed affecting inscription.
THE LAST WORK PUBLISHED IN STEINBECK'S LIFETIME.
America and Americans is really a companion piece to Travels with Charley, containing as it does ideas and reflections generated by Steinbeck's travels that did not make it into the earlier book. In 1964, the new head of Viking, Thomas H Guinzburg, approached Steinbeck with the idea of writing a preface for a commissioned photo book featuring images from all four corners of the continental US. "John approached the project with the understanding that it would be a short 'commercial' job that he could do in a couple of weeks, but as he became more involved, what had started out in his mind as a sort of 'booklet' was transformed into a collection of essays to accompany the photos...." (Benson 955). Frustrated with his Arthur project, Steinbeck threw himself into America and Americans, completing what he would come to think of as the third title in his "moral trilogy" that also includes The Winter of our Discontent and Travels with Charley.
From the introduction: "In both text and pictures, this is a book of opinions, unashamed and individual. For centuries America and the Americans have been the target for opinions—Asiatic, African and European—only these opinions have been called criticism, observation, or, God help us, evaluation. Unfortunately, Americans have allowed these foreign opinions the value set on them by their writers. For our part, we have denounced, scalded, celebrated and lied about facets and bits and pieces of our own country and countrymen; but I know of no native work of inspection of our whole nation and its citizens by a blowed-in-the-glass American."
THE LAST WORK PUBLISHED IN STEINBECK'S LIFETIME.
America and Americans is really a companion piece to Travels with Charley, containing as it does ideas and reflections generated by Steinbeck's travels that did not make it into the earlier book. In 1964, the new head of Viking, Thomas H Guinzburg, approached Steinbeck with the idea of writing a preface for a commissioned photo book featuring images from all four corners of the continental US. "John approached the project with the understanding that it would be a short 'commercial' job that he could do in a couple of weeks, but as he became more involved, what had started out in his mind as a sort of 'booklet' was transformed into a collection of essays to accompany the photos...." (Benson 955). Frustrated with his Arthur project, Steinbeck threw himself into America and Americans, completing what he would come to think of as the third title in his "moral trilogy" that also includes The Winter of our Discontent and Travels with Charley.
From the introduction: "In both text and pictures, this is a book of opinions, unashamed and individual. For centuries America and the Americans have been the target for opinions—Asiatic, African and European—only these opinions have been called criticism, observation, or, God help us, evaluation. Unfortunately, Americans have allowed these foreign opinions the value set on them by their writers. For our part, we have denounced, scalded, celebrated and lied about facets and bits and pieces of our own country and countrymen; but I know of no native work of inspection of our whole nation and its citizens by a blowed-in-the-glass American."