The Preface : American Authorship in the Twentieth Century

Building on insights from the fields of textual criticism, bibliography, narratology, authorship studies, and book history, __The Preface: American Authorship in the Twentieth Century__examines the role that prefaces played in the development of professional authorship in America. Many of the prefaces written by American writers in the twentieth century catalogue the shifting landscape of a more self-consciously professionalized trade, one fraught with tension and compromise, and influenced by evolving reading publics. With analyses of Willa Cather, Ring Lardner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Penn Warren, and Toni Morrison, Ross K. Tangedal argues that writers used prefaces as a means of expanding and complicating authority over their work and, ultimately, as a way to write about their careers. Tangedal’s approach offers a new way of examining American writers in the evolving literary marketplace of the twentieth century. Acknowledgments Praise for The Preface Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: An Influence on the Public Authorial Prefaces and the Literary Marketplace in America Henry James and Joseph Conrad The American Reprint Market and the Authorial Preface An Influence on the Public Bibliography Chapter 2: A Proper Reading: Willa Cather’s Introductions to My Ántonia A Proper Reading: Cather as Editor in Control The Impact of the 1926 Revisions Something Complete and Great Bibliography Chapter 3: Stepping In or Turning Back: Ring Lardner and Authorial Resistance Authorial Resistance How to Write Short Stories (with Samples) (1924) The Love Nest and Other Stories (1926) Stepping In Bibliography Chapter 4: Inhibiting Signposts: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Authorial Anxiety Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) The Great Gatsby (Modern Library, 1934) Taps at Reveille (1935) Bibliography Chapter 5: The Will to Control: Ernest Hemingway and the Action of Writing Kiki of Montparnasse (Kiki, 1929) Green Hills of Africa (1935) All Good Americans (Jerome Bahr, 1937) The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938) Controlling the Action Bibliography Chapter 6: A Safe Distance: Robert Penn Warren’s Introductions to All the King’s Men Origins “Huey” Out of History Into History Bibliography Chapter 7: Ensuring Presence: Toni Morrison and the Language of Legacy A Public Exposure of a Private Confidence Language Must Get Out of the Way Like a Grown-Up Writer Assuming Power Bibliography Chapter 8: Coda: Any Given Moment Has Its Value Bibliography Index Building on insights from the fields of textual criticism, bibliography, narratology, authorship studies, and book history, The Preface: American Authorship in the Twentieth Century examines the role that prefaces played in the development of professional authorship in America. Many of the prefaces written by American writers in the twentieth century catalogue the shifting landscape of a more self-consciously professionalized trade, one fraught with tension and compromise, and influenced by evolving reading publics. With analyses of Willa Cather, Ring Lardner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Penn Warren, and Toni Morrison, Ross K. Tangedal argues that writers used prefaces as a means of expanding and complicating authority over their work and, ultimately, as a way to write about their careers. Tangedal’s approach offers a new way of examining American writers in the evolving literary marketplace of the twentieth century.