DUPONT: The autobiography of an American enterprise published in commemoration of its 150th anniversary.

The story of E. L. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the company on July 19, 1802. "This is a book without an author, just as it is a story without an end," begins the Foreword of this book of one of America's most notable business ventures. Unlike most historical accounts, which express the impressions of a detached viewpoint, this is a book written from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. It is not intended as formal history, but as a living record. Generations of men and women played parts in the development of the company from q single powder mill to a national institution, and generations were to contribute in this chronicle. Thousands of photographs were examined from scores of widely dispersed sources. Diaries, maps, ledgers, letters, and personal recollections of hundreds of DuPont people were studied. "This is not," as the Foreword says, "a story told by a single pen, secured in the somber perspective of history." It is a story to be set down over the years, written into the records by the lives of the 1000s who have participated as day followed day. This is their story, as they have enacted it: The Autobiography of an American Enterprise DU PONT.