Beschreibung
8vo. Map at p. [xvii]. xvi, [2], 285, [1] pp., + 16 pp. catalogue dated March 1846 (BAL "B" variant, no priority), with half-title. Publisher's red cloth (BAL variant B), covers stamped in blind, spine titled in gilt. An exceptional copy, with just a trace of wear to front board fore-edge and rear joint, small chip from tail end of spine A fine first edition in publisher's cloth of Melville's first book, preceding the American edition of the same year, which appeared a month later under its now more familiar title, TYPEE. This London edition was set from Melville's manuscript, whereas the New York Wiley & Putnam edition was set from proof sheets of the Murray edition. "Murray's first printing consisted of 4,048 copies (2,500 of them in wrappers), priced at five shillings in cloth and half a crown in wrappers; the book became a profitable one for Murray, with further printings required, but Melville's earnings did not go up with increased sales, since Murray had purchased the copyright from Melville for £100 . " (Howe Library).Recent scholarship (v. Thomas Tanselle, The Writings of Herman Melville, vol. I, p. 307) has cast doubt on Blanck's characterization of the two states of sheet C as "issues," and Blanck himself admits that "no wholly satisfactory publication sequence has been established for the London issues of this book ."REFERENCE: BAL 13652 First edition, second state of C2 (p. 19, l. 1 reads "Pomare"). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 100536
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