HERMAN MELVILLE1819-1891

HERMAN MELVILLE

At intervals during the last forty years, Herman Melville has been discovered by intellectuals, belauded, a little read, and once more forgotten. It is typical of the man and of his perverse withdrawal from the lettered world, that even before his death he was the subject of spasmodicbattuesby appreciative readers, who sought to startle into activity their idol's reputation by methods suited to the enlivenment of an author long dead and hidden by the undergrowth of time.

The latest and the most thorough stimulation to which the repute of Melville has been subjected is now at full stretch. Whatever its critical shortcomings, this concerted attempt to write a new name on the roll of nineteenth-century genius bids fair to achieve one important triumph—the immortalization ofMoby Dickand, consequentially, of the man who wrote it.

A very minor result of the same Melville boom is his inclusion in this book. Save in the matter of date, he has little in common with the other writers here treated. They are of Victorianism Victorian; he, if he belongs to any period or to any genealogy, is of the ageless, race-less family of the lonely giants. That his fellows between these covers are all lesser novelists than he, I am unprepared to admit. Trollope excels him in humour, wisdom and depth of understanding; he must rank, as master of technique, below all save Whyte-Melville and perhaps Disraeli. But he has a quality of grandeur, a majesty of isolation that they lack, and his very inchoate bitterness of spirit transcends by its datelessness their well-rounded friendliness and their complacent wit.

If that were not enough, he differs from them also in the very texture and subject of his work. His mysticism, for all its yearning and its gloom, is of a spiritual quality far rarer than that of their materialism, for all its vivacityand its aspiration. Between him and Reade is a certain soul resemblance, but the advantage in this is Melville's. He directly influenced the Englishman,[4]and beside his remote immensity Reade, even at his most massive and his most contentious, seems but a dwarf, roaring disgruntlement against the walls of Grub Street.

4.There is in existence the copy ofMoby Dickin which Reade made extensive notes and excisions, maybe with the idea of issuing an abbreviated version. Readers ofLove Me Little, Love Me Longwill immediately detect the influence of Melville's great book on the whaling narrative related by Frank Dodd to Mr. Fountain and to his lovely niece.

Melville's books are the strange mirror of a strange life. The young writer, famous at thirty, who yet lives out a diminuendo of appreciation to an old age of disappointed poverty, is no unfamiliar figure. One thinks immediately of William Harrison Ainsworth, from the foppish eminence of his early twenties to the last sad years in a Tonbridge villa, when he laboured at the regular production of three-volume fiction—one novel a year at seventy-five pounds the time—alone amid the memories of vanished splendour. But the man who as a youth wins reputation in letters and passes, of deliberate purpose, maturity and age in other, non-literary, pursuits is a scarcer type, of which Melville is an unusual example.

Born in 1819, he publishedTypeeat the age of twenty-seven,Moby Dickfive years later, andThe Piazza Talesin 1856. From then until his death, in 1891, he wrote little, and, to the even greater detriment of his fame, withdrew entirely from the society of writers, hiding his name and his very existence behind the screen of an obstinate reserve.

I have no intention here either of summarizing the life or of passing judgment on the works of Herman Melville. The former is related in detail by Professor Raymond Weaver, whose large biography is of so recent date that any shorter presentment of the facts must merely be a précis of the information therein contained. The respective merits of the outstanding books are already(and will remain for long enough) the sport of literary publicists, to whose views and counter-views I refer the curious. One feature, nevertheless, of contemporary opinion challenges to protest my amateur temerity. Apart fromMoby Dick, the neo-Melvillian has little beyond patronizing approval for the books of his hero;Typee(1846) andOmoo(1847) are interesting records of travel, remarkable mainly for the early date of their appearance and as forerunners of the South Sea School in letters and in painting.Mardi(1849),Redburn(1849), andWhite Jacket(1850) claim respect as autobiography and for passages that reveal their author's genius struggling toward a more complete expression. These are the rising steps to the crowning summit of Melville's work. There, unique and peerless, standsMoby Dick; beyond it the terraces fall away again, and even more steeply than they rose.

Is this opinion a just one? I am a little uncertain. With no desire to denigrateMoby Dickor to deny it the first place inimportanceamong Melville's books, I would venture that his genius is more perfectly and skilfully revealed in a volume of stories belonging to the so-called decadence.The Piazza Talesare liable to be dismissed by the critic of to-day with kindly condescension as “the best of the later work,” a judgment as misleading as it is easily explained. In some degree the worship ofMoby Dickand the comparative neglect of the other work are inevitable corollaries to the Melville boom at its present stage. During the first period of any new æsthetic wonder, the peculiar transcends the normal in the imagination of disciples. Let the case of Melville be paralleled with that of Tintoretto's pupil, Greco. When first set in the revival of interest in this painter's work, he was most admired when most bizarre. He won favour for the contrast he presented to his immediate forerunners and his contemporaries. The name of Greco stood for certain mannerisms in colour and composition, and, the more a Greco picture revealed those mannerisms, the better a Greco it was judged to be. Already, from thehand of time, this formula of appreciation is suffering adjustment, but Melville is to-day precisely at the point where yesterday Greco stood. Like the master of Toledo, he has peculiar and noticeable tricks of matter and of style. BecauseMoby Dickis of these tricks more redolent than the author's other books, it tickles the palate of contemporary enthusiasm more thoroughly than do they.

Such preference is by its very nature tenacious.Moby Dick, for all that it is unmistakably Melville, is far from flawless. What if Melville recognized its weaknesses? What if he deplored those very characteristics that are to-day lauded as his priceless individuality and chief claim to fame? With all its vastness and its wonder, the epic story of Ahab and the great white whale displays the faults of its author as strikingly as it reveals his talents. In years to come, when the glamour of oddity has paled a little, it will be admitted that the book labours under a sad weight of intolerable prolixity. Nor is this prolixity implicit in the greatness of Melville's writing. This is proved by the two chief stories inThe Piazza Tales.Benito CerenoandThe Encatadashold in the small compass of their beauty the essence of their author's supreme artistry. They are profound and lovely and tenderly robust, but they are never tedious and never wilful. Surely it were generous to admit that Melville sought to improve onMoby Dickand that, in the matter of technical control, he succeeded? These two stories cannot as literary achievement compare with their vast and teeming predecessor. That is natural. But they may not be ignored as the last glimmer of a dying lamp. They mark the highest technical level of their author's work, and, had not within a year or two of their appearance the darkness of self-distrust descended on him, might well have proved a revelation of something yet to come from the brain of Herman Melville, something destined—but for the treacherous inhibition of human frailty—to excel in power everything to which that brain had previously given birth.

BIOGRAPHY

HERMAN MELVILLE, MARINER AND MYSTIC. ByRaymond M. Weaver. New York. Doran. 1921. London: Humphrey Milford. 1922.

This long and careful book is based on the papers and information of the Melville family and represents the sum of present-day knowledge of Melville's life and ideas.

Collectors should observe the fact that it was the custom of American publishers in the fifties and sixties to bind one edition in cloths of various colours for the purposes of window display. Consequently Melville's first American editions are met with in a variety of colourings which, in the matter of date of issue, rank equally.

I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPESFICTION, POETRY, TRAVEL

*TYPEE: A Peep at Polynesian Life during a Four Months Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas with notices of the French Occupation of Tahiti and the Provisional Cession of the Sandwich Islands to Lord Paulet. ByHerman Melville. Part One. (Part Two.) New York. Wiley and Putnam, London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1846. 2 vols. Sm. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼).

Vol. I. pp.[5]Vol. II. pp.[5]

5.That the pagination of these volumes must be omitted is a misfortune that was unpreventable. A detailed description of the books was sent me from America, but the slip on which the actual pagination was set out did not arrive.

The half-titles to both volumes read: Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books: Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. On the verso of half-title to Vol. I. is a list of books of travel; on that to Vol. II. the titles in the Library of American Books. Vol. I. contains a map. Dark green cloth, gilt. Fawn end-papers.

NARRATIVE OF A FOUR MONTHS RESIDENCE AMONG THE NATIVES OF A VALLEY OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS: OrA Peep at Polynesian Life. ByHerman Melville. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1846. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. xvi + (ii) + 285 + (1). Publisher'sadvertisements, 16 pp., dated March, 1846, bound in at end. A sketch map of the Marquesas Islands on page (xviii) faces page (1). Red cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. White end-papers.

Note—A volume in Murray's “Colonial and Home Library” (No. 15). Subsequently namedTypee. The lettering on the spine reads: Colonial and Home Library Vol XV Melvilles Marquesas Islands Murray.

*TYPEE: A Peep at Polynesian Life during a Four Months Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas. Revised Edition with a Sequel. ByHerman Melville. New York: Wiley and Putnam. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1847. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼). Pp[6]. Of this book pp. 291-307 are occupied by the sequel toTypeeentitledThe Story of Toby, and not previously published. Map faces title-page.

6.See footnote to previous page.

TYPEE: OrA Narrative of a Four Months Residence Among The Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas Islands: OrA Peep at Polynesian Life. ByHerman Melville. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1847. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. xvi + 301 + (1). Pp. 287-301 are occupied byThe Story of Toby, a sequel toTypeenot previously published. Publisher's advertisement precedes half-title proper, occupying reverse of a series half-title of “The Home and Colonial (sic) Library,” these two pages being inset on other than text paper. Publisher's catalogue, Fcap. 8vo, 16 pp., dated March, 1847, bound in at end. Red cloth, gilt, uniform with preceding item. Yellow end-papers.

Note—The lettering on the spine is identical with that of the 1846 issue.

1847

OMOO: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas. ByHerman Melville, author ofTypee. New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers. London: John Murray. 1847. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (408). The pagination of this volume is very confusing. Pp. (1)-(16) are paged xv + (i). Pp. 17-389 are so paged, p. (390) is unpaged, pp. (391)-(399) are paged (xv) to xxiii, p. (400) is unpaged, and pp. (401)-(408) are paged (1) to 8. Title-page printed in red and black, half-title in red. Line-engraved map printed separately facing title. Blue cloth, blocked in gold and blind. White end-papers.

Note—As an example of the varieties to be met with among American publications of this date, I append a collation of this same book, made by a friend from a copy seen in the United States. The variation of binding and end-papers is unimportant (see note on p. 220).

*OMOO: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas. ByHerman Melville, author ofTypee. New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers. London: John Murray, 1847. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. 398, of which (1)-(9) are unpaged, (10)-(17) are paged in roman numerals, 18-389 in arabic numerals, while pp. (390)-(398) are occupied by publishers' advertisements. Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., bound in at end. Title-page printed in red and black, half-title in red. Line-engraved map facing title-page. Brown cloth, blocked in gold. Marbled end-papers.

OMOO: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas, being a sequel to theResidence in the Marquesas Islands. ByHerman Melville, author ofTypee. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1847. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. xiii + (i) + 321 +(1). Line-engraved map printed on text paper facing title-page. Red cloth, gilt, uniform with preceding item. Pale yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) The lettering on the spine reads: Adventures in the South Seas Murray.

(ii) A volume in Murray's “Colonial and Home Library” (No. 22). The Preface is dated New York, January 28, 1847.

(iii) Contemporary announcements of Murray's “Colonial and Home Library” speak of an issue of this book intwo parts, “sewed,” and numbered respectively 43 and 44 of the series. I have never seen such wrappered issues, but, to judge by their numbering in the Library, they postdate the edition above described.

MARDI AND A VOYAGE THITHER. ByHerman Melville, author ofTypeeandOmoo. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1849. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. x + 336 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. x + 335 + (3).

Vol. III. pp. viii + 348.

Titles printed in two colours. Pale apple-green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Blue and white decorated end-papers, printed with publisher's advertisements.

Note—This book was published on March 16, 1849. The English edition predates the American one. 1,000 copies were printed.

MARDI: AND A VOYAGE THITHER. ByHerman Melville. New York: Harper and Bros. Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. 1849. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).

Vol. 1. pp. (376). The paging is very irregular. Pp. (1) to (6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears dedication; p. (10) is blank; p. (11) bears preface dated New York, January, 1849; p. (12) is blank; p. (13) is half-title; p. (14) is blank; pp. (15) to (18) are occupied by List of Contents paged (ix) to xii; pp. (19) to (371) are paged (13) to 365; pp. (372)to (376) are blank and unpaged. Pp. (1) (2) and (375) (376) are pasted down to front and back inside end-papers.

Vol. II. pp. (408), of which pp. (1)-(6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) is half-title; p. (10) is blank; pp. (11)-(14) are occupied by List of Contents paged (ix) to xii; pp. (15) to (393) are paged (9) to 387; p. (394) is blank and unpaged; pp. (395)-(402) are occupied by publishers' advertisements paged (1) to 8; pp. (403)-(408) are blank and unpaged. Pp. (1) (2) and (407) (408) are pasted down to front and back inside end-papers.

It should be noted that in each volume the printed half-title follows the title-page.

Dark green cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.

REDBURN:His First Voyage. Being the Sailor boy confessions and reminiscences of the son of a gentleman in the Merchant Service. ByHerman Melville. Author ofTypee,Mardietc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1849. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 316. No half-title.

Vol II. pp. viii + 314.

Dark blue cloth, gilt, blocked in blind, white end-papers patterned in blue and printed with publisher's advertisements.

Notes—(i) This book was published on September 29, 1849. The English edition predates the American one. 750 copies were printed.

(ii) I have seen a copy of this edition bearing on the case the name of T. C. Newby as publisher, but with the Bentley title-page. This was probably a “remainder” copy, for Newby frequently bought sheets of books that had not sold when originally published, and issued them at a cheaper price wholly or partially over his imprint.

1849

REDBURN:His First Voyage. Being the sailor boy confessions and reminiscences of the son of a gentleman in the Merchant Service. ByHerman Melville, Author ofTypee,Mardi. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. 1849. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. (420). The numbering of pages is very erratic. Pp. (1)-(6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears dedication; p. (10) is blank; pp. (11)-(17) are occupied by List of Contents paged (v)-xi; p. (12) is blank; pp. (13) to 390 are so paged; pp. (391)-(394) are unpaged and occupied by advertisements of other works by Melville; pp. (395)-(406) form a publishers' list, dated October, 1849, and paged (1) to 14; pp. (407) and (408) are occupied by publishers' advertisements, undated, but paged (1) and 2; pp. (409)-(412) are blank; pp. (413) and (414) are pasted down to inside back end-paper. No printed half-title. Purple-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

Note—Copies of the first edition are found with fewer advertisement pages at the end. These may well, in view of the irregular nature of American bookmaking at that period, be contemporary in issue with those more extensively furnished, but the collector will naturally prefer a copy as complete as possible.

WHITE JACKET: OrThe World in a Man of War. ByHerman Melville. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1850. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 322.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 315 + (1).

No half-titles. Pale blue cloth, gilt, blocked inblind. Yellow end-papers, printed with publisher's advertisements.

Notes—(i) This book was published on January 23, 1850. The English edition predates the American one. 1,000 copies were printed.

(ii) Vol. I. pp. iii and iv contain a preface dated October, 1849, and different in content from the note on p. iv of the American edition, dated March, 1850.

WHITE JACKET: OrThe World in a Man of War. ByHerman Melville. Author ofTypee,Omoo,MardiandRedburn. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. London: Richard Bentley. 1850. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. (484). Here again the paging is irregular. Of the preliminary matter pp. (1)-(6) are blank; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears quotation from Fuller'sGood Sea-Captain; p. (10) bears author's note, dated New York, March, 1850; pp. (11)-(13) are occupied by List of Contents and are paged in roman numerals, (v) to vii; p. (14) is blank; pp. (15) to (471) are paged (9) to 465; p. (472) is blank; pp. (473)-(476) are unpaged and occupied by advertisements of other works by Melville; pp. (477) (478) are also unpaged and occupied by publishers' advertisements; pp. (479)-(484) are blank and unpaged. No printed half-title. Dark brown or blue-grey cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

Note—The varieties of binding are of simultaneous date.

THE WHALE. ByHerman Melville, author ofTypee,Omoo,Redburn,Mardi,White Jacket. (Quotation fromParadise Lost.) London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1851. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 312.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 303 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. iv + 328.

Quarter cream cloth blocked in gold; bright blue embossed cloth sides, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published on October 18, 1851. The English edition predates the American one. 500 copies were printed.

(ii) Vol. I. only has half-title, on which the story is described asThe Whale or Moby Dick.

MOBY DICK: OrThe Whale. ByHerman Melville, Author ofTypee,Omoo,Redburn,Mardi,White-Jacket. New York: Harper and Bros. Publishers. London: Richard Bentley. 1851. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (xxx) [paged as xxiii + (i)] + 634 + (12). Epilogue occupies p. (635). Publishers' advertisements, 6 pp., occupy pp. (637)-(642). Pp. (i) (ii) and (647) (648) are pasted down to front and back inside end-papers. No printed half-title. Slate-blue or scarlet cloth, gilt. Orange end-papers.

Notes—(i) The varieties of binding are of simultaneous date.

(ii) This book was expurgated for publication in England, the American text containing thirty-five passages not included in Bentley's edition (see previous item).

PIERRE: OrThe Ambiguities. ByHerman Melville. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, 329 and 331 Pearl Street, Franklin Square. 1852. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (xii) [paged as viii] + 495 + (6). Pp. (i) (ii) and (501) (502) are pasted down to front and back inside end-papers. No printed half-title. Dark grey cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Dark grey end-papers.

1852

PIERRE: OrThe Ambiguities. ByHerman Melville. London: Sampson Low Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1852. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. viii + 495 + (i). No half-title. Blue embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in November, 1852.

(ii) This English edition consists of American printed sheets with cancel title. It is as scarce as, if not scarcer than, the American edition, the bulk of which was destroyed by fire.

ISRAEL POTTER:His Fifty Years of Exile. ByHerman Melville. Author ofTypee,Omooetc. New York: G. P. Putnam and Co., 10 Park Place. 1855. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (280) [paged as (2) + 276 + (2)]. No printed half-title. Purple-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

Note—On the case, this book is entitled “Fifty Years Exile.” A pirated edition, under the titleThe Refugee, was published in Philadelphia in [1865].

ISRAEL POTTER:His Fifty Years of Exile. ByHerman Melville, author ofTypee,Omooetc. London: G. Routledge and Co., Farringdon Street. 1855. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4 × 6½). Pp. 174. Bright yellow paper wrappers printed in black. The outside back wrapper is occupied by publishers' advertisements. Also issued simultaneously in cloth.

Note—This book was published in April, 1855.

1856

THE PIAZZA TALES. ByHerman Melville, author ofTypee,Omoo, etc. etc. New York: Dix and Edwards, 321 Broadway. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co. 1856. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅛). Pp. (vi) + 431 + (11). No printed half-title. Publishers' advertisements, unpaged and undated, occupy pp. (433)-(439). Purple-brown cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Grey-blue end-papers.

Contents: The Piazza—Bartleby—Benito Cereno—The Lightning-Rod Man—The Encantadas; or Enchanted Islands—The Bell-Tower.

Notes—(i) This book was published in May or June, 1856.

(ii) It is doubtful whether copies of this book were ever actually issued in England, despite the fact that Sampson Low and Co. advertised the book at 9s. in June, 1856. At the most, copies may exist with an English cancel title, but even this is improbable in view of the joint imprint on the New York edition. It will be noted that when previously Low imported Melville sheets (cf.Pierre, 1852) they inserted their own title-page and bound the book differently for English issue, but in that case their name was not printed on the American edition.

(iii) Copies of the first American edition exist, with pale yellow end-papers. These are thinner in quality than the grey-blue ones above mentioned, and not chalk surfaced to the extent usual with American tinted papers of the period. Indeed, they have more the appearance of English than of American end-papers, but it is difficult to believe that Sampson Low and Co. could have imported sheets and cases from America, merely carrying out in this country the process of binding.

THE CONFIDENCE MAN:His Masquerade. ByHerman Melville, Author ofThe Piazza Tales,Omooetc. etc. New York: Dix Edwards and Co., 321 Broadway. 1857. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. (x) [paged as vi] + 394 + (4). No printed half-title. Purple-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Dark green end-papers.

1857

THE CONFIDENCE MAN:His Masquerade. ByHerman Melville, author ofThe Piazza Tales,Omoo,Typeeetc. etc. Authorized edition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts. 1857. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. vi + 354. No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 24 pp., dated September, 1855 [sic], bound in at end. Yellow-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Brick-red end-papers, partially printed with publishers' advertisements.

Note—This book was published in April, 1857.

BATTLEPIECES AND ASPECTS OF THE WAR. ByHerman Melville. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, Franklin Square. 1866. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜). Pp. (298), of which pp. (i)-(6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears dedication; p. (10) is blank; p. (11) bears Author's Note; p. (12) is blank; pp. (13)-(16) are occupied by List of Contents paged (vii)-x; pp. (17) to (278) are paged (11) to 272; pp. (279)-(284) are blank and unpaged. No printed half-title. Brown or violet cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.

Note—There was no English edition of this book.

CLAREL: A Poem and a Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. ByHerman Melville. In four parts. I. Jerusalem. II. The Wilderness. III. Mar Saba. IV. Bethlehem. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, No. 182 Fifth Avenue, 1876. 2 vols. Sq. 16mo (6⅞ × 5⅛).

Vol. I. pp. (304), of which pp. (8) and (9) are paged ii and iii, pp. (10) and (11) unpaged, and pp. (12)-(304) are paged 8 to 300.

Vol. II. pp. (312). In this volume the paging is even more erratic; pp. (i)-(5) are unnumbered, p. (6) is numbered iv, pp. (7), (8), and (9) are unnumbered, pp. (10) to (309) are numbered 304 to 571, pp. (310) to (312) are unnumbered.

Bright green cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was published in July, 1876. There was no English edition.

JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS, WITH SOME SEA PIECES. New York: De Vinne Press. 1888. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4½ × 6¾). Pp. (iv) + 103 + (1). Cream paper wrappers printed in black.

Note—Only twenty-five copies of this edition were printed.

*TIMOLEON etc. New York: Canton Press. 1891. 1 vol. (4½ × 7). Pp. (72), of which (1)-(5) are unnumbered, (6) is paged in roman numerals, pp. 7-70 in arabic numerals, and (71) and (72) unnumbered. Buff paper wrappers, printed in black.

Note—Only twenty-five copies of this edition were printed.

II.—BOOKS PARTIALLY WRITTENBY HERMAN MELVILLE

There are only two items that it is possible to list under this heading, and to each one of them Melville's contribution is so slight as to make unnecessary their detailed collation. P. 30 of theMemorial to James Fenimore Cooper, published in one volume by Putnam, New York, in 1852, bears a letter from Melville in praise of Cooper addressed to the Committee organizing the Cooper celebration. Pp. 399 and 400 ofThe History of Pittsfield, Massachusetts from 1800 to 1876, by J. E. A. Smith, and published in Springfield by C. W. Bryan and Co., 1876, bear an account of Major Thomas Melville written by Herman Melville, but not nominally attributed to him.

Back to Index Next