Snow Country - Writing Process

Writing Process

The novel began as a single short story published in a literary journal in January 1935, its next section appearing in another journal the same month. Kawabata continued writing about the characters afterward, with parts of the novel ultimately appearing in five different journals before he published the first iteration of the book. An integration of the initial seven pieces with a newly conceived ending, this appeared in 1937. Kawabata restarted working on the novel after a three-year break, again adding new chapters, and again publishing in two separate journals in 1940 and 1941. He re-wrote the last two sections, merging them into a single piece. This was published in a journal in 1946. Another additional piece arrived in 1947. Finally, in 1948, the novel reached its final form, an integration of nine separately published works.