MELVILLE, Herman. Moby-Dick; or the Whale . New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851.
MELVILLE, Herman. Moby-Dick; or the Whale . New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. 12 o . 6-page publishers' advertisements at back. (Some spotting as usual, first gathering loose.) Original purple-slate cloth, covers blocked in blind with thick rule border and central circle with 'Harper Brothers', spine gilt-lettered, brown-orange endpapers (some wear to joints, a few stains, scuffs, and worm holes); morocco slip-case. Provenance : Charles Warren Stoddard (1843-1909), American author and editor (ownership inscription from Waulei, Maui, Hawaii, dated May '84, on flyleaf). FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, FIRST ISSUE BINDING. BAL 13664; Grolier American 60; Johnson High Spots 57. A VERY FINE ASSOCIATION COPY. Charles W. Stoddard was born in 1843 in Rochester, NY. He moved to San Francisco in 1854, and by the 1860s, he quit school to pursue a literary career; he joined San Francisco's Bohemian and journalistic circles, and formed long-lasting friendships with fellow authors Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, and Samuel Clemens (for whom he served as a secretary-companion on a trip to England in 1873). In 1864, he visited the South Sea Islands for the first of five trips he would make throughout his life. In 1866, he sent a copy of his newly published Poems to Herman Melville, whom he admired, along with the news that he had found no traces of Melville in Hawaii. The Melville Log notes Melville's reply to Stoddard, in which he comments that he was struck by the poem "Cherries and Grapes," and says that he is not surprised that Stoddard found no traces of him in Hawaii. Stoddard's South-Sea Idylls (published in 1873) includes many references to Melville, and on page 279, Stoddard writes: "A moist cloud, far up the mountain, hung above a serene and sacred haunt, and under its shelter was hidden a deep valley, whose secret has been carried to the ends of the earth; for Herman Melville has plucked out the heart of its mystery, and beautiful and barbarous Typee lies naked and forsaken." For Stoddard, Melville and Hawaii were inextricably linked. In 1884 (the year of his inscription of this copy), Stoddard visited Hawaii, and in 1885, he published A Trip to Hawaii . In 1891, the year of Stoddard's death, his friend Robert Louis Stevenson published The South Seas: A Record of Three Cruises , in which he remarks, "There are but two writers who have touched the South Seas with any genius, both Americans: Melville and Charles Warren Stoddard."
MELVILLE, Herman. Moby-Dick; or the Whale . New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851.
MELVILLE, Herman. Moby-Dick; or the Whale . New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. 12 o . 6-page publishers' advertisements at back. (Some spotting as usual, first gathering loose.) Original purple-slate cloth, covers blocked in blind with thick rule border and central circle with 'Harper Brothers', spine gilt-lettered, brown-orange endpapers (some wear to joints, a few stains, scuffs, and worm holes); morocco slip-case. Provenance : Charles Warren Stoddard (1843-1909), American author and editor (ownership inscription from Waulei, Maui, Hawaii, dated May '84, on flyleaf). FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, FIRST ISSUE BINDING. BAL 13664; Grolier American 60; Johnson High Spots 57. A VERY FINE ASSOCIATION COPY. Charles W. Stoddard was born in 1843 in Rochester, NY. He moved to San Francisco in 1854, and by the 1860s, he quit school to pursue a literary career; he joined San Francisco's Bohemian and journalistic circles, and formed long-lasting friendships with fellow authors Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, and Samuel Clemens (for whom he served as a secretary-companion on a trip to England in 1873). In 1864, he visited the South Sea Islands for the first of five trips he would make throughout his life. In 1866, he sent a copy of his newly published Poems to Herman Melville, whom he admired, along with the news that he had found no traces of Melville in Hawaii. The Melville Log notes Melville's reply to Stoddard, in which he comments that he was struck by the poem "Cherries and Grapes," and says that he is not surprised that Stoddard found no traces of him in Hawaii. Stoddard's South-Sea Idylls (published in 1873) includes many references to Melville, and on page 279, Stoddard writes: "A moist cloud, far up the mountain, hung above a serene and sacred haunt, and under its shelter was hidden a deep valley, whose secret has been carried to the ends of the earth; for Herman Melville has plucked out the heart of its mystery, and beautiful and barbarous Typee lies naked and forsaken." For Stoddard, Melville and Hawaii were inextricably linked. In 1884 (the year of his inscription of this copy), Stoddard visited Hawaii, and in 1885, he published A Trip to Hawaii . In 1891, the year of Stoddard's death, his friend Robert Louis Stevenson published The South Seas: A Record of Three Cruises , in which he remarks, "There are but two writers who have touched the South Seas with any genius, both Americans: Melville and Charles Warren Stoddard."
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
