In Moby Dick circles this is the accepted text for the novel. The editors, Hayford, Parker and Tanselle, aimed at presenting the text as near as Melville's intention as the "evidence permits."
I purchased this book new in 1988, and long before the nugget of The Moby-Dick Collection was found.
Whenever I look at this book I remember 1988 as a watershed year in my life. The year I lay about the pool reading Jude the Obscure, already noted. The year I bought my first business and the unfortunate year of my separation and ultimate divorce from the mother of our children.
Perhaps, in buying this book, I knew I was beginning a quest of sorts myself.
This book reminds me too that 1988 was the year I declared my love to the second of the three great female loves of my life. She left my life in 1991 and I never have spoken or acknowledged her since, except to a very very small number of intimate friends to whom I have detailed her importance in my life. It is only recently that I have begun to talk openly about my love of her with people who knew her. People who are not intimate friends of mine, but friends non the less.
Such is the journey of peoples lives: complex, wonderful and ever changing. Some call it baggage, I think it is fascinating.
This blog was meant to be a catalogue of books, aimed at highlighting the importance of the printed bound volume in contrast to the temporary fleeting electronic media. However, I feel that when a book has a personal connection and meaning, I need to divulge that as well. In cataloguing these books as not only objects but objects with meanings and memories the purpose of the blog achieved.
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