LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 October Rare Books & Manuscripts #675  / 

31153

First American Edition of Melville's Moby Dick

Currency:USD Category:Books / Antiquarian & Collectible Start Price:15,000.00 USD Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
First American Edition of Melville's Moby Dick
<B>Herman Melville: A Handsome Copy of The First American Edition of <I>Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.</B></I></B></I> By Herman Melville, Author of <I>“Typee,” “Omoo,” “Mardi,” “White-Jacket.”</B></I> (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1851). First American edition (Previously published the same year in London as a triple-decker under the title: <I>The Whale.</B></I> Twelvemo (7.25” x 5”). Xxiii, 1, blank , 634, 1, epilogue , 1, blank , 6, publisher's ads , 2, blank pages. Publisher's original brown cloth, stamped in blind on the boards with a heavy rule frame and the publisher's circular device at center, and lettered in gilt on the spine. Original brown-orange coated endpapers. Double flyleaves at front and back. Binding professionally repaired at the spine, having been re-backed with portions of the original spine preserved. Gilt lettering is renewed at the top of the spine. Light to moderate scattered foxing, rear hinge cracked by still very sound, else a very good, attractive copy of this classic of American literature. Housed in a custom black felt-lined quarter morocco clamshell case by Asprey & Gerrard, with the spine in five compartments with four raised bands, and tooled and lettered in gilt. Melville's now-classic novel, <I>Moby Dick,</B></I> was initially misunderstood by critics and ignored by readers and as such was a publishing failure. A fire at Melville's publisher Harpers in 1853 destroyed the plates of his books and most of the copies remaining in stock, with only about sixty copies surviving the fire. “The publishers used as their text Melville's original manuscript. <I>The Whale,</B></I> as issued in London, was set from New York Sheets, with Melville's alterations.” <I>(-Bibliography of American Literature).</B></I> “This book was expurgated for publication in England, the American text containing thirty-five passages not included in Bentley's edition.” (-Sadleir, <I>Excursions in Victorian Bibliography,</B></I> page 339). “Melville's permanent fame must always rest on the great prose epic of <I>Moby Dick,</B></I> a book that has no equal in American Literature for variety and splendor of style and for depth of feeling.” <I>(-Dictionary of American Biography,</B></I> XII, pages 522-526). “<I>Moby Dick</B></I> is the great conundrum-book. Is it a profound allegory with the white whale the embodiment of moral evil, or merely the finest story of the sea ever written?” (-Grolier, <I>100 American</B></I>).<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Books & Catalogs (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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