Monody
Melville, Herman. Grasse, Prometheus Press, 1982.

One of five copies signed by artist Frederic Prokosch

[6] + 1 blank leaf + [1] pp. With hand-painted frontispiece illustration, signed with artist’s initials. 15.8x11 cm. (6¼x4¼”), saddle-sewn blue wrappers, paper cover label, clear jacket. Number “alpha” of 5 copies, printed on Guerimand paper.

Typee: A romance of the South Seas
Herman Melville. New York: Pr. by John S. Fass at the Harbor Press for the Limited Editions Club, 1935.

Melville’s account of life among the cannibals of the Marquesas Islands, with an introduction by Raymond Weaver, his first biographer, and with watercolor illustrations byMiguel Covarrubias, who signed the colophon. This is numbered copy 1012 of 1500 printed on Worthy Paper Co. rag paper, bound by George McKibbin & Son in full East Indian tappa cloth with the spine stamped in black and green in a design by Covarrubias also used on the slipcase.
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“But these reflections now seldom obtruded upon me; I gave myself up to the passing hour, and if ever disagreeable thoughts arose in my mind, I drove them away. When I looked around the verdant recess in which I was buried, and gazed up to the summits of the lofty eminence that hemmed me in, I was well disposed to think that I was in the ‘Happy Valley’, and that beyond those heights there was naught but a world of care and anxiety. As I extended my wanderings in the valley and grew more familiar with the habits of its inmates, I was fain to confess that, despite the disadvantages of his condition, the Polynesian savage, surrounded by all the luxurious provisions of nature, enjoyed an infinitely happier, though certainly a less intellectual existence than the self-complacent European.” ~Chapter XVII

Moby Dick, or, The Whale
Herman Melville. NY: The Artist’s Limited Edition, 1975.

Illustrated with paintings by LeRoy Neiman. Preface by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Folio. 509 of 1500, signed by Neiman & Cousteau. Morocco, slipcase.

Benito Cereno
Herman Melville. London: Nonesuch Press, 1926.
Numbered copy 932 of 1650 printed on grey Van Gelder paper at the Curwen Press. Publisher’s red cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, in black-printed dust-wrapper.

“First edition thus: Based on events recounted in Delano’s 1817 Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, this much-debated, enigmatic novella tells the story of a black slave revolt at sea. Illustrated by American artist Edward McKnight Kauffer (noted for his influential poster designs) with a frontispiece and six plates in hand-stencilled color, the text was reproduced from the 1856 first edition of The Piazza Tales.”

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Herman Melville, New York: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, 1851.

First American edition, in scarce lovely unrestored original cloth, of Melville’s rare classic. Octavo, original stamped green cloth, orange-brown endpapers. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

“Arguably the greatest single work in American literature, Moby-Dick was initially “a complete practical failure, misunderstood by the critics and ignored by the public; and in 1853 the Harper’s fire destroyed the plates of all his books and most of the copies remaining in stock (only about 60 copies of Moby-Dick survived the fire)…”

Moby Dick or The Whale
Herman Melville. Illustrated by Rockwell Kent.
The Lakeside Press, Chicago, 1930.

Illustration:

3 volumes. Illustrated with 280 reproductions of pen, brush and ink illustrations by Rockwell Kent. 11x8, original black cloth stamped decoratively in silver, top edges stained black, pages unopened and untrimmed, original acetate covers, housed in the publisher’s aluminum slipcase. First Kent Illustrated Edition. One of 1000 sets printed under the supervision of William A. Kittredge for R. R. Donnelley & Sons.

Inscribed by Rockwell Kent in the first volume. Magnificent Rockwell Kent renderings for this major American novel. Includes the often-lacking original publisher’s aluminum slipcase. Rockwellkentiana p. 62. Provenance: From a private collection.