Four years before his death, Wyndham Lewis wrote to the modernist scholar Hugh Kenner:

Lewis added: ‘In Tarr (1914–15), I was an extremist.’ This image of a difficult, uncompromising novel for an elite could well apply to the first version of Tarr – completed in 1915 and published by the Egoist Press in Britain and by Knopf in the United States in 1918. But in 1928, Lewis accepted an offer to reprint his novel in the newly created Phoenix Library, sold for only three shillings and six pence. Lewis was reluctant at first, complaining about the low compensation he would receive. But he then threw himself into the project and decided to rewrite the entire novel. At that time in his career, Lewis was eager to address not a ‘publique d'elite’ or an ‘aristocratic audience’, but a large audience who had never read Tarr before.

Scholars have often discussed the merit of the 1928 edition over the earlier versions. ‘Just ask any one of the two dozen Lewis scholars in the world which of the versions of Tarr is the best or most complete text’, wrote John Xiros Cooper. ‘Be prepared for a lively response.’ While some might prefer the less polished Egoist or Knopf texts, it is likely that very few university teachers choose these versions for their courses. When Scott Klein edited a reprint edition of Tarr in the Oxford World's Classics series, he selected the 1928 text. As he put it, ‘Lewis intended Tarr to be known solely in its revised version.’ Although the differences between the 1918 and 1928 texts have been extensively studied, the Phoenix Library is mentioned only in passing (if at all). This gap in scholarship is all the more surprising given that Lewis self-consciously recorded his engagement with the publisher's series. ‘This is the copy of the american edition of “Tarr” on which I made the corrections for the revised edition of “Tarr” published in Chatto & Windus’ “Phoenix” library.’