Polymath wrote:

About 40 years ago, I recall as a teenager borrowing
a book from the local library that described how to
make your own transistor radio, including the manufacture
of the transistors themselves by point-contact
techniques. ISTR that it was published in Yankland.

Does anyone here remember this book?

I don't know if it is the same book, but one currently available is
"Instruments of Amplification" by H.P. Friedricchs, ISBN 0-9671905-1-7.
It is available from the ARRL.