Final copy of manuscript of the Dreiser Edition of A traveler at forty, with a complete record of emendations, historical notes, and textual notes.

A Traveler at Forty ."rises completely out of the commonplace, and becomes something new, illuminating and heretical. It differs enormously from the customary travel books: it is not a mere description of places and people, but a revelation of their impingement upon an exceptional and almost eccentric personality." - H. L. Mencken "For everywhere [Dreiser] goes he watches people with a terrible curiosity about them that never rests until he has their secrets." - Sinclair Lewis The most productive period of Theodore Dreiser writing life began with the five months he spent in Europe between 1911 and 1912. A Traveler at Forty is the detailed account of his travels during that time, including the exploration of his ancestral roots in Germany. This is the text of the popular original edition as it was published in 1913. THEODORE DREISER (1871-1945) was a pre-eminent American novelist of the first half of the twentieth century. He believed that the experiences of working-class people striving for economic, emotional, and spiritual fulfillment were viable subjects for serious fiction, and for this reason he is regarded as an anatomist of the "American Dream."

A Traveler at Forty illustrated Theodore Dreiser - A Traveler at Forty ."rises completely out of the commonplace, and becomes something new, illuminating and heretical. It differs enormously from the customary travel books: it is not a mere description of places and people, but a revelation of their impingement upon an exceptional and almost eccentric personality." - H. L. Mencken "For everywhere [Dreiser] goes he watches people with a terrible curiosity about them that never rests until he has their secrets." - Sinclair Lewis The most productive period of Theodore Dreiser writing life began with the five months he spent in Europe between 1911 and 1912. A Traveler at Forty is the detailed account of his travels during that time, including the exploration of his ancestral roots in Germany. This is the text of the popular original edition as it was published in 1913. THEODORE DREISER (1871-1945) was a pre-eminent American novelist of the first half of the twentieth century. He believed that the experiences of working-class people striving for economic, emotional, and spiritual fulfillment were viable subjects for serious fiction, and for this reason he is regarded as an anatomist of the "American Dream."

“American history comes to vivid, engaging life in this tale of two interconnected families (one white, one black) that spans from the 1950s to Barack Obama’s first year as president. . . . The complex, beautifully drawn characters are unique and indelible.”—Entertainment Weekly “An astoundingly audacious debut.”—O: The Oprah Magazine • “A gorgeous generational saga.”—New York Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE • FINALIST FOR THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL Meet James Samuel Vincent, an affluent Manhattan attorney who shirks his modest Irish American background but hews to his father’s meandering ways. James muddles through a topsy-turvy relationship with his son, Rufus, which is further complicated when Rufus marries Claudia Christie. Claudia’s mother—Agnes Miller Christie—is a beautiful African American woman who survives a chance encounter on a Georgia road that propels her into a new life in the Bronx. Soon after, her husband, Eddie Christie, is called to duty on an air craft carrier in Vietnam, where Tom Stoppard’s play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” becomes Eddie’s life anchor, as he grapples with mounting racial tensions on the ship and counts the days until he will see Agnes again. These unforgettable characters’ lives intersect with a cast of lovers and friends—the unapologetic black lesbian who finds her groove in 1970s Berlin; a moving man stranded in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during a Thanksgiving storm; two half-brothers who meet as adults in a crayon factory; and a Coney Island waitress whose Prince Charming is too good to be true. With piercing humor, exacting dialogue, and a beautiful sense of place, Regina Porter’s debut is both an intimate family portrait and a sweeping exploration of what it means to be American today. Praise for The Travelers “[A] kaleidoscopic début . . . Porter deftly skips back and forth through the decades, sometimes summarizing a life in a few paragraphs, sometimes spending pages on one conversation. As one character observes, ‘We move in circles in this life.’” —The New Yorker “Porter’s electric debut is a sprawling saga that follows two interconnected American families. . . . Readers will certainly be drawn in by Porter’s sharp writing and kept hooked by the black-and-white photographs interspersed throughout the book, which give faces to the evocative voices.”—Booklist

If you could repeat one year of your life, what would you do differently? This heartwarming and hilarious novel from the authors of The Status of All Things and Your Perfect Life features three best friends who get the chance to return to the year they turned forty—the year that altered all of their lives, in ways big and small—and also get the opportunity to change their future. Jessie loves her son Lucas more than anything, but it tears her up inside that he was conceived in an affair that ended her marriage to a man she still loves, a man who just told her he's getting remarried. This time around, she’s determined to bury the secret of Lucas’ paternity, and to repair the fissures that sent her wandering the first time. Gabriela regrets that she wasted her most fertile years in hot pursuit of a publishing career. Yes, she’s one of the biggest authors in the world, but maybe what she really wanted to create was a family. With a chance to do it again, she’s focused on convincing her husband, Colin, to give her the baby she desires. Claire is the only one who has made peace with her past: her twenty-two year old daughter, Emily, is finally on track after the turmoil of adolescence, and she's recently gotten engaged, with the two carat diamond on her finger to prove it. But if she’s being honest, Claire still fantasizes about her own missed opportunities: a chance to bond with her mother before it was too late, and the possibility of preventing her daughter from years of anguish. Plus, there’s the man who got away—the man who may have been her one true love. But it doesn’t take long for all three women to learn that re-living a life and making different decisions only leads to new problems and consequences—and that the mistakes they made may, in fact, have been the best choices of all…