THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA
The Library of America, a nonprofit publisher and educational outreach entity, was founded in 1979 with grants from the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Although its mission was a well-grounded and no-nonsense business approach to publishing, it essentially was fulfilling a long-held dream by the great critic Edmund Wilson and others. The United States of America, they felt, ought to have a publications series of high standards and high quality of production for its national literature, and it ought to reflect the diversity and traditions of all of its writing.
The first books appeared in 1982, when I first began selling new books in an independent book store here in Carlisle. (The founding of Whistlestop Bookshop was three years away.) I still have my copies of Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman. I won’t tell you how many of the 300+ to date I have acquired, but I am happy to say I never regretted one. The books are remarkably beautiful and efficient and scholarly and finely-made. They are sometimes the only respectable edition available (beware of photo-offset print-on-demand editions!). The accompanying chronologies and notes and textual discussions of every volume are a joy and an education. I cannot praise them too highly.
This listing is what I carry in the store. If you would like other volumes, send me an e-mail or call the store. Enjoy browsing, buying, and owning landmark definitive editions of great writers or great American subjects.
The listings are alphabetical by author except for new or recent anthologies at the top. Older anthologies are at the bottom of the page.
All James Baldwin titles and Ursula K. Le Guin titles are on the respective pages of the authors.
The Annotated Great Gatsby: 100th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
The Annotated Great Gatsby: 100th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
100TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: A richly illustrated deluxe edition of the American classic, with illuminating commentary by a preeminent Fitzgerald scholar
The most authoritative edition ever published: Read Gatsby exactly as Fitzgerald intended—and get an inside look at its composition and publication
“Sumptuous.” —Irish Independent
Boats against the current, we are borne back ceaselessly to The Great Gatsby. Now, in this deluxe annotated anniversary edition, James L. W. West provides running commentary on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, glossing contexts, language, literary allusions, and contemporary references. Dozens of illustrations and photographs throughout the volume vividly recreate the Jazz Age world of Fitzgerald’s most famous work and chronicle its rich cultural afterlife, encouraging readers to linger in the margins of this deluxe annotated edition.
Drawn from the authoritative Library of America edition of Fitzgerald’s writings, this deluxe edition features:
A new introduction by Amor Towles, bestselling author of Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow
A corrected text of Gatsby based on Fitzgerald’s composite manuscript, working galleys, and personal copies
Restored American spellings and emendations made by Fitzgerald throughout the book’s life
13 annotated letters between Fitzgerald and Gatsby’s star editor Maxwell Perkins
A detailed chronology of Fitzgerald’s life and career, plus extensive explanatory and textual notes
With stunning illustrations, insightful commentary, and fascinating insights into the composition, editing, and publication of The Great Gatsby, this 100th anniversary edition of “the Great American novel” is the most authoritative ever published, a must for any fan of this landmark American novel, and anyone interested in the life and literature of the Jazz Age.