1942 Dodd, Mead and Co, Ex Lib

This is a beat book. Ex Lib from the Philip Livingston Junior High School, Albany, New York. Some joker, penciled a "'s" after the title word Moby on the title page. It was last taken out of the library in April 1986 by a student named Jennifer. The first date due was October 3 1962. Sixteen different students names are on the card. All of those kids had a chance to hold this copy in their hand, look at the illustrations, and ponder at least for a moment the story. For sure few of them read the book in its entirety. But at least they gave it a try.

This is the #3 copy. The book has had a long useful life, with just some spilled ink on the outer pages. Now it is safe in the collection, a gift to the collection from JM, long time friend of the editor. JM bought it in a random yard sale this summer in Albany. 

Gifts take many forms, and have many uses but for the most part are given in gratitude, or affection, or guilt. 

Chapter LXXII - the Monkey Rope

When Stubb reappeared, he came with a dark flask in one hand, and a sort of tea-caddy in the other. The first contained strong spirits, and was handed to Queequeg; the second was Aunt Charity's gift, and that was freely given to the waves.

Aunt Charity's gift to the Pequod was given freely to the crew and freely it was given to the seas. Some gifts have no real value and serve no real purpose, only to be regifted at a later date or thrown out. 

JM's gift, regardless of the reason, will be preserved and cherished. 

1947 Oxford University Press Deluxe

This is a lovely volume, in size and shape. Good to hold in the hand, and the feel of the cover boards is substantial.

The type setting is clean, even, and elegant. It would be an awesome book to hold and read.

At some point Marty Matheson signed the inside fly leaf with her name and June '74. Clearly by the ware on the boards, she read some if not all of it.

In looking over this volume, I reread the first paragraph, where Ishmael puts down that when ever he gets out of sorts, especially in November, whenever his dark side begins to win the struggle, and when he is fighting the urge to step into the street, and methodically knock peoples' hats off, he then knows its "high time to get to sea"

He states that going to sea is his "substitute for pistol and ball."

In preventing his becoming a mass murderer, Ishmael chooses to leave a world of independence and solitude and chooses interdependence and involvement by here in this story signing up on a whaleship which by its own nature is a small concise world where it is impossible to be alone.

It is getting colder here in Albany, November is around the corner, and some days I want to step into the street and knock guys ball caps off.  

I am reminded that my dad and my grandads hats did not have ball teams logos on them. Those guys had style and were men of independence and solitude. That is my world too. Yet deep within the sea is calling me.  

1944 Modern Library Giant Edition

The 1944 Modern Library Giant Edition Moby Dick features this blue binding with silver type and lighter blue offset.

We had always known that the Modern Library was the domain of Bennett Cerf, as he was a favorite of ours on the TV show "What's My Line" which ran from 1951 to 1967. As youths we were mesmerized by his patrician ways and seemingly endless knowledge while trying to guess the occupations and other "secrets" of the contestants.

Right up until the time we were shuffled off to boarding school, we watched him on Sunday nights. Perhaps, Bennett Cerf was one of our early "friends" keeping us company on those lonely solitary nights while the Duke and Duchess were off at some cotillion or other.

What we didnt know was that the Modern Library was started by Albert Boni, previously covered in this blog.

That running guy is the "Promethean bearer of enlightenment", for your information.

Here is an interesting link to a Modern Library web site.

1949 Dodd, Mead and Co. Library book Moby Dick

Sometimes its just amazing what Ebay yields! After the book arrives home, completely unexpected, surprises galore.

I knew from the photo during the auction that this copy was beat, but what I did not expect was that it is from a grade school in Vermont and it turns out this grade school is the school that my good friend Mark went to, and was there during this book's tour of duty.

Not only that, I was attending college just down the road when many of these date stamps were applied.

So it was connected by time and space to the both of us!

Shout out to Pete H. who took the book out multiple times and gave it the big effort, no idea if he finished it.

1946 German Language Moby-Dick

This edition of Moby-Dick was printed in Hamburg, Germany by Claassen and Goverts Verlag, just 18 months of the end of WWII. The notation is "printed in Germany", which is significant in the Hamburg was in the British Zone of Occupation and did not become a state of the Federal Republic of Germany until 1949.

This is not a very robust edition, the cover had become separated and is held together with scotch tape and the pages are very yellowed indictative of low grade paper.

The only art is this cover, a most interesting image of Moby Dick. The tail is too short and the eye too big, the head is miss shaped yet it conveys the whaleness of the story.

Why would the publisher choose Moby-Dick to print at the end of a horrific war? The English fire bombed Hamburg in 1943 killing 42,000 civilians and the Nazi's killed 55,000 people in the Neuengamme concentration camp within the city of Hamburg. This surely was a murderous obsession by Hitler. Hitler as Ahab? Confined to his cabin on a fools quest to dominate the world? In the end everyone perishes.

This post was inspired by dolphinguy's comments...

1943, the Heritage Press, Moby Dick, illustrated by Boardman Robinson

Boardman Robinson, born in Nova Scotia, lived from 1876 to 1952, was an illustrator, muralist and cartoonist.

Teacher at the Art Students League, in NYC, it comes as no surprise, given the devastation of WWI, he was a socialist, working on the socalist monthly, The Masses.

In the introduction, of the Heritage Press edition, written by Clifton Fadiman, is the following:

"No one on the Pequod... can overcome his fear of Ahab because the fear is seated in himself. His Ahab-fear is a fear of himself, or rather the pit of blackness, the central dark mother-lode of despair which every man at times knows to be within him."

Robinson's Ahab is a dark mother-lode of despair.

1942 Dodd, Mead and Company MOBY-DICK

The 1942 Dodd, Mead and Company, Moby-Dick, was lavishlly illustratated by Mead Schaeffer (1898-1980). Mr. Schaeffer was 24 when he was hired to illustrate this novel as well as Typee and Omoo.

He later focused on fine art and took commissions from magazines for cover work.

Interestingly, he was a personal friend of Norman Rockwell and he and his family often posed for many of Rockwell's illustrations and paintings. - (Wikipedia)

This copy in the collection is classic, in that some child sometime read the book, leaving his teeth marks on the corners.

Schaeffer chose to illustrate Ahab at the moment he confronts Starbuck with his musket and Starbuck warns: "beware of thyself, old man."

Personally, I love the illustration of Queequeg standing on a whale fast against the Peguod, guarding the catch from the sharks, one of which is clearly larger than Queequeg himself.

When done with the Ahab series, we will examine all of the images for Queequeg, a fascinating proposition...!!

1947 Oxford University Press Paperback, Moby-Dick

The Collection has 3 copies of the 1947 Oxford Moby-Dick. This is the paper back copy, there also are two hard back copies, one is the delux edition.

All three are identical and the inside covers front and back, have a nice map with the route of the Pequod...

Look at the cover art, poor Moby Dick has some what of a frown with a rather oversized harpoon jammed in his back. So art deco-ish..

There is a section at the end of the book of pictures, diagrams, and assorted related material of whaling... not especially useful, but interesting none the less.

How does the cover art on your kindle version of Moby Dick move you?

A Gem! 1942 Everymans Library, Moby-Dick, J.M.Dent London

Distinguished Teaching Professor Hugh MacLean's personal copy of Moby-Dick.

Professor MacLean taught English at the University at Albany from 1963 to 1986. On the inside right cover is the following notation under his signature: "realized in Toronto February 1949", with the price of 2.56 in the top right, presumably Canadian. A biography of Professor MacLean, notes that he graduated from Princeton in 1940 and earned a master's degree and doctorate in English after the war at the University of Toronto, so this is his doctorate copy!

The book is riddled with underlining and notations. A sample: God in the whale: pgs 271, 315,170,469 and 46. Also, intriguingly, on the inside back cover he lists the 9 other ship mentioned in the book and the pages of the listing, with a note on each on how that ship relates to Moby-Dick.

Professor MacLean's published work Edmund Spenser

Next post: "Immortality!"