Fine Books & Manuscripts

KENT, Rockwell, illustrator (1882–1971). –– MELLVILLE, Herman (1819–1891). Moby Dick. Chicago: The Lakeside Press, 1930. 3 volumes, 4to. Title vignettes and numerous woodcut illustrations by Rockwell Kent (some offsetting to text). Original publisher’s black cloth titled and decorated in silver foil, top edges black, uncut (spines sunned and a little rubbed, else fine); aluminum slipcase (few scratches and stains). Provenance: LIMITED EDITION, one of 1000 copies and one of R. R. Donnelly and Sons’ Lakeside Press “Four American Books” campaign. Of the four books produced for the series (also including Poe's Tales, Thoreau's Walden, and Dana's Two Years Before the Mast), Moby Dick was the only work to sell out completely. “The most lasting contribution of the undertaking, though, was Kent's Moby Dick. Still regarded as the definitive illustrated edition of this American Classic, it positioned Chicago as a major center in the history of American book illustration, design, and production” (Coventry, “Four American Books Campaign,” Caxton Chicago by the Book, p.121). The Artist & the Book 140; Burne–Jones, p. xiii; Caxton Chicago by the Book 53; Johnson, American First Editions, p. 211; Rockwellkentiana, p. 60.