This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/21/2024
MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1851. 12mo. [xxiv], [1]-634, [1, Epilogue], [1, blank], [6, ads] pp. Approximately 7 1/8 x 4 5/8". Bound in near contemporary half dark green morocco over marbled boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, marbled endleaves, all edges marbled (skillfully recased, with some expert color correction to binding, light soiling to boards, versos of ffeps soiled or foxed, some occasional foxing and creasing in text, faint ownership inkstamp of James P. Nesmith on front blank). Near fine. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Housed in modern quarter dark green morocco clamshell case. Following the 3–volume English edition by a month, the first American edition contains thirty–five passages not present in that edition. In Grolier’s One Hundred Influential American Books, Melville’s great novel can best be described as containing “the sounds and scents, the very flavor, of the maritime life of our whaling ancestors” and in Johnson’s High Spots a “masterpiece” after rising from semi–obscurity in the 20th century. BAL 13664. Grolier American 60. Johnson’s American First Editions p. 247. Johnson, High Spots of American Literature, p. 57.