Herman Melville - Moby Dick
Apr 30th, 2007 by Bauman
“No equal in American Literature.” (DAB)
On a cold day in 1853, one of the most disastrous blazes in the history of New York City lit up the darkness of Pearl Street. Accidently ignited by a plumber, the fire claimed the publishing headquarters of Harper & Brothers, destroying thousands of books, sheets, plates and proofs. Among the many volumes destroyed in the fire were 297 copies of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.
The fire consumed all but 60 of the remaining unsold copies of the initially unpopular novel. The publishers had been unenthusiastic in their small printing of the first American edition, and to Melville’s profound disappointment, Moby-Dick had been neither a popular nor a commercial success.
The fire marked the beginning of Melville’s descent into literary oblivion; it was not until the 1920’s that interest in his novel was revived. After years of obscurity, Moby-Dick finally began to attract readers as well as scholarship, ultimately taking its place in the ranks of American masterpieces. “Melville’s permanent fame nust always rest on the great prose epic of Moby-Dick, a book has no equal in American literature for variety and splendor of style and for depth of feeling” (DAB). We offer a first American edition in original cloth of Melville’s classic.