1981 Oxford University Press, Moby Dick

Of all the publishers of editions of Moby-Dick in this collection, The Oxford University Press seems to be responsible for most number of the fish in this particular school of fish, and whether it is a quirk of this school alone, or indicative of the entire shoal of all the schools of Moby-Dick's, I can only speculate.

As far as I can learn, The Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world and began publishing around 1480, although it did not print a Moby - Dick then, that would be weird.

There are seven catalogued Oxford books in the collection with the earliest one is dated 1921. Some of the paper backs have yet to be catalogued so there are, for sure, many more housed here in Albany.

This species is a recent capture, and a fine example of the late 20th century marketing foray into the fine book field. That was a trend, dominated by the likes of Easton Press and the Franklin Mint, who brought to market high end bindings, gold and leather, with the hopes of capturing sales to those folks who wanted nice looking shelves of books in their homes, and most likely they never read any of them. How would a Kindle compete in this market? Riddle me that, Batman.

This Oxford Edition is relatively hard to find.

Purchase date: 2011