Melville, Herman - Moby Dick - 1930

Hermann Melville (1819–1891): Moby Dick

Incredible but true, this is the first illustrated edition of this cult book since its first edition in 1851. This edition was published in 1930 in parallel as a luxury edition and a trade edition. The luxury edition is currently priced at around €15,000. Therefore the simpler trade edition is the affordable alternative.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick or The Whale. Illustrated by Rockwell Kent. Random House, New York, 1930. Trade Edition. original pictorial cloth.

Thick, almost square octavo format (18.8 x 15.0 cm), 822 pages, original printed black leather binding, silver blind-stamping. The spine is rubbed, warped, with some abrasions, dirt on the covers, endpapers discolored, corners lightly worn, edges browned, stronger signs of use. Condition good. In a facsimile original binding (new) with a plastic protective cover.

First edition with illustrations by Rockwell Kent (1882–1971); the separately issued deluxe edition in three volumes was limited to 1,000 copies, so this is the “trade edition,” without the original dust jacket (extremely rare) (facsimile available).

“Probably the most impressive single work of American literature” – A. Mizener, cited in “Famous American Books”, 16. {Tanselle, “Checklist of the Editions of Moby Dick”, 18}. Kent's illustrations are perhaps the best-known illustrations for Moby Dick today and certainly among the most effective — Tanselle's Moby Dick Checklist, 17. The trade edition contains 8 illustrations fewer than the deluxe edition [The Artist and The Book, p. 96]. [1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, p. 130].

Moby Dick; or, The Whale is often referred to as the great American novel. Many 20th-century authors, including D.H. Lawrence and Ralph Ellison, praised Moby Dick as one of the most significant novels ever written. In Melville's lifetime, however, the work was largely ignored. The literary taste of the mid-19th century regarded the fragmentary narrative as an unforgivable fault. Initially, in 1851, an incomplete British edition appeared as well, in which the crucial epilogue was missing, in which Ishmael, the narrator, escapes from his danger, rendering the whole work illogical. This initial reception shaped all later reviews, even after the first (complete) American edition appeared. Ultimately, the work remained largely unread until the 1920s, when the Modernists came to re-appreciate the fragmentary narrative and other masterful qualities, reviving interest in the work. Yet even greater recognition came when Rockwell Kent published this volume, which, in the opinion of many, contains the best book illustrations of the 20th century. Kent's work propelled Moby Dick to the forefront of American literary criticism and made the novel more popular than any edition published before. Without Rockwell Kent's illustrated Moby Dick, we would not count this work among our greatest.

Weight: 920 g