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Herman Melville. The Whale. London: Richard Bentley, 1853.... (Total: 3 )
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Description
Extremely Rare Remainder Issue, Using the Same Sheets as the 1851 First Edition
Herman Melville. The Whale. London:
Richard Bentley, 1853. FIRST EDITION, REMAINDER ISSUE, with
publisher's 1853 re-issue title pages. Three volumes. 12mo (115 x
176 mm). With half-title in volume I only, as issued. Late
nineteenth-century library binding of green buckram, spine lettered
in gilt.A bibliographic rarity. The true first edition of Melville's Moby-Dick was published in England as The Whale in 1851; this edition preceded the American edition by only a few months. Sadleir reports only 500 copies of this first edition were published. Despite the limited publication, the book did not enjoy much commercial success, and many first edition copies failed to sell. In 1853, publisher Richard Bentley supplied new title pages for each of the three volumes, dated 1853, and re-issued the remainders as three volumes in one in red cloth.
The present text consists of the true first edition (English) sheets, with the issue points of volume I, page 177 mis-signed "I 2" and volume III, page 325 mis-paged as "32", as identified by Blanck in his Bibliography of American Literature; however, the title pages are cancels with the date "1853." The three volumes remain individually bound, and the half-title in volume I is still present.
Johnson's 1970 census records only nine copies of the 1853 remainder issue of three volumes bound in one volume in publisher's red decorated cloth, all in institutions. The Reese copy of three volumes in one bound in red cloth sold in 2022 for $327,600. No copy of this 1853 remainder issue in three volumes has been offered at auction in almost forty years.
Condition: Cloth stained and scuffed. Abrasions to front pastedowns in each volume where bookplates have apparently been removed, faded "withdrawn" stamps in black ink to each front free endpaper. Textblocks toned with scattered thumb-soiling. Volume III with ink stains in first four gatherings, confined to margins, D3 reinserted, D4 and D5 loose but present.
References: See BAL 13663 (note); Johnson, "An Attempt at a Union List of Editions of Melville, 1846-91" in The Book Collector (Autumn 1970), pages 333-347; Sadleir, Excursions in Victorian Bibliography, pages 228-229; Tanselle 1.
Auction Info
2023 December 15 Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction #6280 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2023
15th
Friday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 15
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
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