| Author: Grove,
Frederick Philip, 1879-1948.
Title: A
search for America / Frederick Philip Grove. --
Edition: [4th ed. / Ryerson]. --
Published: Toronto : The Ryerson Press, 1939.
Description: [ix], 392 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: Title page appears in a double frame with a stylized wave-pattern,and
the publisher's emblem, a ship and bulging, square sail with the initials "R" and "P" and
the date "1829". -- Across title page: "By the same author" lists Over Prairie
Trails, The Turn of the Year, Settlers of the Marsh, Our Daily Bread, It Needs
To Be Said, The Yoke of Life, Fruits of the Earth, and Two Generations.". --
Contents: Table of Contents, p. [xi]: Book One: The Descent, 3-104. Book Two:
The Relapse, 107-222. Book Three: The Depths, 225-315. Book Four: The Level,
319-392. -- Each Book is introduced with a motto: p. [1], a quotation from Robert
Louis Stevenson; p. [105] & [317], Henry David Thoreau; p. [223], Thomas
Carlyle. -- The lining papers by Meekison represent a rough map of eastern and
western North America.
Annotation: Autobiographical fiction affording numerous glimpses into Grove's
life as Felix Paul Greve (1879-1909), and the three poorly documented years he
spent in America before coming to Manitoba in late 1912. -- This is the only
ed. with the subtitle "The Odyssey of an Immigrant." -- "Author's Note to the
Fourth Edition" [p. vii] is roughly three times as long as the December 1996
note found in all previous editions by Graphic (Oct. 1927, January 1928 Carillon
Club ed., and "1st reprinting" in June 1928) and by Louis Carrier (Oct. 1928).
In this original "Author's Note" Grove claims that this book has been rewritten
8 times over the last 32 years, and excuses "anachronisms" as "an unavoidable
consequence of such a method of composition." He thanks A.L.P. [Phelps] and W.K.
[Kirkconnell] of Wesley College, Winnipeg, for their encouragement.
Verso of t.p., p. [vi]: "Copyright, Canada, by Frederick Philip Grove. / Copyright,
1928, by Louis Carrier & Co. / Copyright, Canada, 1939, by The Ryerson Press,
Toronto." -- Bound in fine-grained, leather-like brownish-red coated linen. On
the cover, there is an essentially rounded monogram of Grove's initial's, the "G" enclosing
the "FP" and a twig with three leaves.
Printed dedication on p.[ix]: "I reverently dedicate this book to the memory
of George Meredith and Algernon Swinburne and Thomas Hardy."
This Dedication to Meredith, Swinburne, and Thomas Hardy is significantly shorter
than those appearing in all three H. Miller/Graphic editions: before "Hardy" these
editions add: "...and to one of that illustrious triad who is still living, namely,
Thomas Hardy," and after this name, "...for 'Canadian literature is a mere bud
on the tree of great Anglo-Saxon tradition'."
Local Note: This "4th ed." by Ryerson is clearly based on the very printing plates
used for the Louis Carrier "American edition" of October 1928. Even the "end
leaves", or more correctly, the lining papers, repeat Meekison's map of North
America, without any acknowledgement whatsoever.
Pencilled and stamped on inside cover: "ACCESSION NUMBER 175359", and "E. Dafoe
Memorial Fund, 4.08."
Subjects: Grove,
Frederick Philip, 1879-1948 Fiction.
Grove,
Frederick Philip, 1879-1948 Childhood and youth.
Greve,
Felix Paul, 1879-1909.
Autobiographical
fiction.
Other Author(s): Ryarson
Press.
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