“NO EQUAL IN AMERICAN LITERATURE”: FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF MOBY-DICK IN ORIGINAL CLOTH

MELVILLE, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, 1851. Octavo, original purple-brown cloth, original orange-coated endpapers. Housed in custom cloth chemise and half morocco slipcase.

First American edition, in first binding, of Melville’s rare classic. An intriguing association copy belonging to a member of the Macy family, inscribed on the front free endpaper: "A.P. Charles for J.M. Macy."

Arguably the greatest single work in American literature, Moby-Dick was initially "a complete practical failure, misunderstood by the critics and ignored by the public; and in 1853 the Harper's fire destroyed the plates of all his books and most of the copies remaining in stock (only about 60 copies of Moby-Dick survived the fire)… [Nevertheless,] Melville's permanent fame must always rest on the great prose epic of Moby-Dick, a book that has no equal in American literature for variety and splendor of style and for depth of feeling" (DAB). This American edition contains 35 passages and the Epilogue omitted from the English edition (The Whale, published in October of the same year; the first American edition appeared in November). Complete with six pages of advertisements at rear, covers blind-stamped with heavy rule frame and publisher's circular device at center, orange-coated endpapers. This copy with double flyleaves at front and triple flyleaves at rear. BAL 13664. The Macy family was well-known in Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, and a J.M. Macy is recorded in the Historical Society records; he would have been 47 in 1851. (There is also a branch of the Macy family that moved to North Carolina in the 18th century; given that we only have the recipient's initials rather than a full name, it is impossible to state with certainty that the recipient was of the Nantucket Macys, though it seems likely given the subject matter.) Rowland Hussey Macy, founder of the department store chain, for example, was the fourth of six children born to one branch of this family on Nantucket. (As a young man, he worked on the whaling ship Emily Morgan and had a red star tattooed on his hand, which became a feature of his store's logo.) Melville is also known to have used Obed Macy's 1835 History of Nantucket as a reference while writing Moby Dick, mentioning Obed Macy by name in Chapter 35, calling him "the worthy Obed" and "the sole historian of Nantucket."

With a note in pencil at the end of the text, possibly that of the recipient: "A precious medley of transcendental stuff, superstitious notions, and whale oil. Can such a work live? Take out the notes on the sperm whale, which seem exaggerated, and what is left? Nov. 30/51." BAL suggests November 15, 1851, as the date of publication.

Upper blank corner of title page with expert repair; faint marginal dampstain in lower gutter through text. Text block neatly recased in original binding, backstrip strengthened, with restoration to cloth at spine ends and corners, gilt brightened. A skillfully restored copy with an intriguing contemporary association.