Coming of Age in Samoa

Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
Coming of Age in Samoa:
A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth
for Western Civilization, 1928
Printer's prepublication dummy
Manuscript Division
Bequeathed by Margaret Mead, 1979 (113A)

Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
Reporter's note book 2
Page 2 - Page 3
Page 4 - Page 5
Manuscript Division
Gift of the Institute for Intercultural
Studies, 1982 (113.7b)

Before departing for a field trip to New Guinea in the fall of 1928, anthropologist Margaret Mead reviewed the proofs and this printer's prepublication dummy for her first book, Coming of Age in Samoa. A study of adolescent girls in American Samoa, the book became one of the best-known--and controversial--works of popular anthropology ever. It has been reprinted more than a dozen times in a variety of languages and editions. Mead did not realize the extent of her popular success until her 1929 return to the United States.