Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Good/No Jacket
- Seller
-
Decatur, Indiana, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Overall good condition The black boards with silver writing and illustration have rubbing, fading and some bumping at edges and corners Fading notable to the front illustration Some small soiling to the back board The spine is worn at both ends, including small, closed tears in both ends Severe fading and rubbing to the spine The spine is a little cocked and loose but does not seem to be broken Some age toning throughout, most severely at the front and rear end pages where it appears something was taped and removed with markings remaining Some light creasing to some pages near the front 822 pp
Extended Description and Notes
Beautiful early Moby Dick!
Synopsis
Melville's classic was first published in England as three volumes titled The Whale in October 1851. Slow sales of Melville's previously books convinced Publisher L. Richard Bentley to reduce the printing to only 500 copies, and of that, only 300 sold in the first 4 months. The remaining unbound sheets were bound in a cheaper casing in 1852, and in 1853 there were still enough remaining sheets to again bind into an even cheaper edition. Melville changed the title to Moby Dick a month later, November 1851, when the American Version was published in one volume by Harper & Brothers in NY. Of the 2,951 copies printed, 125 were review copies. About 1,500 sold in 11 days, but then sales slowed to less than 300 the next year. After two years copies of the first edition were still available, and almost 300 were destroyed in the 1853 fire of Harper's warehouse. Most of the first editions have orange end-papers, although there are 2 known volumes with rare white-endpapers. Because of Nineteenth-century printing practices, and the time-lapse between when the first-editions were published and Melville became collectible, oxidized paper, bumped and chipped spines, and brittle wrappers are all common for even the most expensive and collectible of these books, which can sell from $35,000 to $100,000. Also, expect heavy wear and maybe even minor repair. Another collectible edition is the 1930 first edition illustrated by Rockwell Kent, a three-volume set published by the Lakeside Press with acetate dust jackets in an aluminum slipcase. These range in value from $9,000 to $11,000. A total of 3,215 copies of Moby-Dick were sold during Melville's life (he died in 1891). Today, Moby-Dick is considered one of the greatest American novels. -
Read More: Identifying first editions of Moby Dick
Reviews
Why would this be 600 since the original was in 1851?
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Details
- Bookseller
- Next Page Bookstore, LLC (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 41067
- Title
- Moby Dick
- Author
- Herman Melville
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Random House, New York
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1930
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Bookseller catalogs
- Rare Books;
Terms of Sale
Next Page Bookstore, LLC
About the Seller
Next Page Bookstore, LLC
About Next Page Bookstore, LLC
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Cocked
- Refers to a state where the spine of a book is lightly "twisted" in such a way that the front and rear boards of a book do not...