1990 Great Illustrated Classics Moby Dick

 

This Collection has shied away from abridged children's books, for a variety of reasons, as has been discussed in the past.  Yet, here is just that. A twenty one year old copy of the Great Illustrated Classics Moby Dick, a children's abridged book, lovingly inscribed in a female hand: Chris love Gram and Grampy.

The Collection received this copy from SHP, daughter of the editor, who is an ELL teacher at the Donald McKay School in East Boston, Mass.  

That school is a just  a few blocks north of the site of school's namesake's ship yard, where in 1851 he built the Flying Cloud, perhaps the most extreme of extreme clippers. A mere 99 years later the Editor of TMDC would be born west of the site by sixty miles.  Ironic, no?

When SHP gave us this copy, she was in the company of several other gradeschool teachers from the Donald McKay School. There was a most interesting and lengthy conversation about the quality of the Great Illustrated Classics as a body of work, whether they were good for young children, true to the original work, and a viable teaching resource. We think that the opinions tended to be on the negative side. 

We just love imagining who Grampy was. He could still be alive, he may have lived in East Boston and worked at one of the remaining ship yards there, but most certainly he was something special to a young reader.

The MOBY DICK collection on display, again

 

Several editions from TMDC will go on display at the Providence Athenaeum as stated in their press release (the Japanese, German and Icelandic editions) :

9/19 – 12/31/11 – “Hark!  The White Whale!”  Moby-Dick Illustrated. Our Moby-Dick program series continues this fall with an exhibition exploring illustrated editions of Moby-Dick including the 1930 edition by Rockwell Kent, along with adaptations from popular culture, including Moby-Dick in comics.  We are also fortunate to have the loan of several foreign language editions of the book from the gracious Moby-Dick collector W. O. Pettit III; The Moby-Dick program series continues as well; please see the calendar cards or website for program details.


Check the Providence Athenaeum website for full listing of the MOBY DICK programs thru the fall.

1956 Riverside Edition Paper Back Moby-Dick

One of our favorite previous posts involved the 1956 Riverside Edition of Moby Dick from Houghton Mifflin.

Interestingly, here is a new addition to the collection, which for all intents and purposes is identical to the aforementioned book with the exception of the cover. A cover which is clearly not of the 1950's, yet no where within the book is an indication of the year of printing.

The book is a gift to TMDC from Ford Mclain, a local Albany, NY artist, the featured artist at a local art party recently.

This cover tells us so much more than the original edition:  The Riverside Editions, it is explained on the rear cover, are "a series of classic American, British and continental literature distinguished by its textual purity and authoritative editorial material."

Quoting again from the rear cover: "Moby Dick combines grandeur... friendship, tragedy with the intense anguish of a lonely human soul."  A fitting quote.