| Author: Grove,
Frederick Philip, 1879-1948.
Title: A
search for America : "America is a continent, not a country" / by Frederick Philip
Grove. --
[First Edition]. NOTE: Basis for the UMArchive's e-Edition, 2000/5
Published: Ottawa : Graphic Publishers Limited, c1927.
Description: [ix], 448 p. ; 19 cm.
Contents:
Book One: The Descent [R. L. Stevenson, Motto], Chapter I-VII, p.1-116: I. I
emigrate. -- II. I land on American soil. -- III. I secure work. -- IV. I submerge.
-- V. I earn a promotion. -- VI. I meet the explanation for one kind of success.
-- VII. I move on.
Book Two: The Relapse [Thomas Carlyle, Motto], Chapter I-VII, p. 117-253: I.
The issue is obscured. -- II. I scour the city for work. -- III. I go on the
road. -- IV. I seek new fields. -- V. I join a new company. -- VI. I go on the
road again and land somewhere. -- VII. I wind things up.
Book Three: The Depths [Henry David Thoreau, Motto], Chapter I-VII, p. 257-362:
I. I go exploring. -- II. I lose sight of mankind. -- III. I come into contact
with humanity again. -- IV. I try to find work for the winter. -- V. I become
a "hand". -- VI. I widen my outlook. -- VII. I am kidnapped.
Book Four: The Level [Henry David Thoreau, Motto], Chapter I-V, p.365-448: I.
I learn to beat my way. -- II. I start work in the harvest. -- III. I become
acquainted with the hobo. -- IV. I meet mother and son. -- V. My problem defines
itself and I solve it.
Annotation:
Autobiographical fiction affording numerous glimpses into Grove's life as Felix
Paul Greve (1879-1909), and the otherwise undocumented three years he spent in
America before he came to Manitoba in late 1912. --
On Half Title [p.i]: "By the same author: Over Prairie Trails ; The Turn of the
Year ; Settlers of the Marsh. --
On Title Page [p.iii]: 'America is a continent, not a country.' --
p. [iv] is blank.
p. [v]: "I reverently dedicate this book to the memory of George Meredith, and
Algernon Swinburne, and to one of that illustrious triad who is still living,
namely Thomas Hardy, for 'Canadian literature is a mere bud on the tree of great
Anglo-Saxon tradition'." The name of these three authors are in capitals. --
The Preface ["Author's Note", p. vi] is dated Dec. 1926, Rapid City, and signed
with the printed initials F.P.G. This is the continuation of a habit Grove adopted
as Felix Paul Greve, when signing the prefaces of his numerous German translations.
--
Note about the 1926 "Author's Note":
Grove claims in this preface of 1926 that his book had to be shortened and rewritten
8 times over the last 32 years -- he was 47, going on 48 (on Feb. 14, 1928),
and if this were true, he would have written the 1st version in 1894 at age 15.
It is more likely that he wrote ASA in ca. 1914 which is the time computed when
subtracting the 20 years Grove had added to his story and to his biography.
Grove also worked a warning into this brief "preface", saying that "anachronisms" are
to be excused as "an unavoidable consequence of such a method of composition." He
thanks A.L.P. [ Arthur Leonard Phelps] and W.K. [Watson Kirkconnell] of Wesley
College, Winnipeg, for their encouragement. --
Table of Contents, p. [vii]. --
p. [viii]: "Copyright 1927 / by Frederick Philip Grove." And, at the bottom: "M" [no
doubt, for Miller] / Printed in the Dominion of Canada / All Rights Reserved." --
Each of the four "Books" is preceded by a separate, unnumbered title page with
a quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson [p. ix], Henry David Thoreau [p.117 & 363],
and Thomas Carlyle [p.255]. --
p. 450: "A note on the type in which this book is set... ":
type face is "Monotype No.8A, based on the design cut by Farmer, Little & Co." Then
a very detailed description of "this modern letter" which "appears to best advantage
in solid composition."
This is followed at the bottom of the page by:
"Set up and printed by Graphic Publishers, Limited, Ottawa, Canada; Binding by
Hutchings & Patrick, Ottawa ... Paper by Howard Smith Paper Mills, Cornwall,
Ont. Cover and jacket design by Alan A. Beddoe."
Underneath this note there is the publisher's emblem, a Firebird. --
Following the detailed note on type & paper on p. [450], there are two pages
advertising 8 Graphic/Miller Books:
Scottie / Benson Walker ; Yvon Tremblay / Louis Arthur Cunningham ; Boobs in
the Woods / Merrill Denison ; Only This /James H. Pedley. --
Kinsmen at War / J. N. McIlwraith ; The Shadow of Tradition / C. Holmes McGillivray
; The four Jameses / William Arthur Deacon ; Morning in the Marsh / Mark G. McElhinney
[p.451-452].
The Lining paper shows horizontally aligned, small squares which hold circles
containing in turn a Thunderbird, the publisher's emblem ; an eye ; and a fox.
Black and orange rows alternate. In the upper third, the pattern is interrupted
for the title & author statements, while a lower, orange row says "Cover & Jacket
by Alan B.Beddoe."
The Binding:
orange boards with black linen spine;
spine shows, in gold lettering,
the title and "Grove", as well as Miller's publisher's emblem, a Thunderbird
in a circle within a square, saying "Graphic".
Note:
This is the First Edition published in October, 1927 by H. C. Miller/Graphic
Publishers, Ottawa.
500 copies were bought in early 1928 for the newly established Carillon Book
Club. Henry Miller wrote to Grove on Feb. 12, 1928 [Mss 2, Corresp.] that "Mr.
Knight has ordered 500 copies of the Search" as "the first offering to the Club,
while the second is Mackenzie King's The Message of the Carillon."
The Club was founded "the day after Christmas [1927]," and "the selecting committee
[was] composed of L. J. Burpee, E. W. Harrold of the Ottawa Citizen, Jimmy Pedley,
and C. C. Knight."
Miller reported that with these 500 copies sales numbered nearly 1600 copies
within three months following publication, and that Grove's first Canadian Club
Lecture Tour (to Ontario, 28.Feb. to April 30, 1928) would bring sales up "to
well over the 6000 mark before June [1928] ..."
A second printing called "First reprinting" was indeed published in June, 1928.
The preliminaries, the stylized waves & two sails in Beddoe's Running Title,
the text & the pagination are identical in each and every respect.
The only differences are:
- red insted of yellow covers
- wider margins, resulting in a larger book (21.5 rather than 19 cm.)
- the following information on the verso of the title
page which is left blank in the 1st ed.: "First edition, October, 1927 / First
reprinting, June, 1928."
-in the end, both the detailed note on type face and paper, and the two
pages of Graphic advertisement are lacking.
- the Lining Paper differs slightly by adding in a dark square in the middle "This
is a Miller book."
Local Note: Acquired from Burton Lysecki Books, Winnipeg, by Gaby Divay from
FPG Endowment Funds, Feb. 15, 2000.
Subjects: Grove,
Frederick Philip, 1879-1948 Autobiographical fiction.
Grove,
Frederick Philip, 1879-1948 Childhood and youth.
Grove,
Frederick Philip, 1879-1948. Search for America. 1927.
Other Author(s): Graphic
Publishers (Canada)
Holdings: Elizabeth Dafoe Library PS 8513 R87 S42 1927 RBR/
Archives
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