Highly sought-after first edition book: Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville. First American edition, first issue with original orange endpapers. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1851. Hardcover bound in publisher's original brown cloth, blindstamped at center with the publisher's circular life-buoy device, handsomely rebacked with spine in expert facsimile, 5.25 x 7.5, 635 pages, plus 23 pages of prefatory extracts and four pages of publisher’s advertisements in rear. The endpapers, title page, and dedication page bear various annotations in early hands, including an ownership inscriptions on the front free endpaper, "Caspar Shunk from 'Will,' Harrisburg, 12 May 1857," and on its verso: "Mrs. Wm. F. Shunk, Pittsburg, June 1852." Some early whale sketches are also drawn in pencil on the front pastedown. Professionally restored to very good condition, with a tight binding, bottom half of front endpaper professionally repaired, light scattered foxing to textblock, and aforementioned annotations.
References: BAL 13664; Grolier American, 60.
Per Grolier: 'Moby-Dick 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? Whichever it is, now rediscovered, it stirs and stimulates each succeeding generation, whether reading it for pleasure or with a scalpel. Within its pages can be found the sounds and scents, the very flavor, of the maritime life of our whaling ancestors.'
Established as a successful writer—having published seafaring adventures Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, and White-Jacket—Melville began writing Moby-Dick upon returning home from a trip abroad in February 1850. He completed the masterpiece over the course of the next 18 months, and it was first published in the autumn of 1851 with an American print run of 2,915 copies. Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael," stands among the most famous in all of literature. Despite initial poor sales, Moby-Dick was rediscovered after Melville's death and has since become known as one of the most original and influential books ever written. As a rare first edition of a cornerstone of American literature, this is an exceptionally desirable example.
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