Bartleby, the Scrivener First Edition - Herman Melville - Bauman Rare Books

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Bartleby, the Scrivener

Herman MELVILLE

Item#: 123805 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Bartleby, the Scrivener

Bartleby, the Scrivener

Bartleby, the Scrivener

Bartleby, the Scrivener

"I WOULD PREFER NOT TO": 1853 FIRST APPEARANCE OF MELVILLE'S SHORT FICTION MASTERPIECE, "BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER," IN PUTNAM'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE—"STANDS AMONG THIS AUTHOR'S GREATEST CREATIONS, ENIGMATIC BUT CONVINCINGLY ALIVE"

[MELVILLE, Herman]. Bartleby, the Scrivener. A Story of Wall-Street. IN: Putnam's Monthly Magazine, Volume II, No. XI, November 1853, pp. 546-57, and No. XII, December, 1853, pp. 609-15. Entire Volume II (July to December, 1853) present. New York: G.P. Putnam & Co., 1853. Thick octavo, original blind- and gilt-stamped green cloth.

First appearance of a classic of American short fiction, Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener," published anonymously in Volume II of Putnam's Monthly Magazine.

"Melville wrote and published serially 15 short stories between 1853 and 1856. 'Bartleby,' the first published, appeared anonymously in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, November and December, 1853. It was collected in Piazza Tales, 1856. It stands among this author's greatest creations, enigmatic but convincingly alive" (Bradley, et al., The American Tradition in Literature, 901). The striking pessimism encountered in "Bartleby" reflects the downturn that Melville's literary career had taken at the time: "One view is that it reflects Melville's futility at the neglect of his novels and his uncertainty about how to relate to society" (Hart, 57). "Like Bartleby, Melville was a 'scrivener' or writer. Melville also refused to copy out the ideas of others, or even his own, in response to popular demand; he too 'preferred' to withdraw. Like Bartleby, he also distrusted the economic compulsion of society; he resented the financial assistance of his wife's father… However, Bartleby's fictional withdrawal from life represents an ancient and universal theme of history, legend, and literature, and Melville succeeded in universalizing his version of the theme" (Bradley, et al., 901). Includes all of Volume II of Putnam's Monthly Magazine, six issues from July to December, 1853, bound together in the publisher's cloth. Contemporary owner ink signature, dated 1854.

Minor occasional foxing; a few light rubs to cloth, spine gently toned, gilt still bright. An extremely good copy in the original cloth.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
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Doublure Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.
Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
Edition Print-run from a single setting of type without substantial change. Depending on demand, any number of printings can be made from a setting of type For example, a first printing might consist of 1000 copies, followed by a second printing of 2500 copies; in which case the book would have a first edition, first printing of 1000 copies, and a first edition, second printing of 2500 copies.
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Japanese Vellum Expensive handmade paper often used in deluxe editions.
Lithograph Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text
Marginalia Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner.
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Morocco Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).
Offset The unintended transfer of ink from one printed page to an adjacent page.
Period-Style binding executed with materials, tools and techniques to approximate the look of a contemporary binding from the period of the book’s publication. The term implies that the binding is modern, or recent, unless otherwise specified.
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