x-library 1922 Oxford, Moby-Dick

#14 in the collection is a wonderful x-library Oxford edition from "The World's Classics", 1922 reprint.

Its a Michigan Library, rebound, beaten up, underlined and well read. This is the kind of thing that no KINDLE could ever duplicate....

On the inside cover someone sometime wrote the following:

Moby Dick an encyclopedia of whaling information bogs down in its morass of data. Incidental tales are interlaced with factual material. However the chase of the white whale by Captain Ahab in the Pequod with its symbolic and ... crew can be pieced together into an exciting tale. The last three days of the chase are the most exciting in the story and might well be read. No youngster who has ever seen a ship will forget the sinking Pequod with a hawk fluttering vainly in the streaming flag on its mainmast as its sails to Davy Jones Locker.

While I transcribed this I needed to review the last pages to understand the reference to the hawk, and immediately I wanted to sit in my reading chair, cup of tea, cigar and read this book...

1939 Albert and Charles Boni, MOBY-DICK

We purchased this volume late last year. There was some discussion about it, since there is another copy in the collection. Here  However, the other volume has a nice blue cover with silver type and decoration, so we thought that this issue is an example of the continuing drag the depression placed on the economy in the late 1930's. Here the printer forgoes the silver. Yet the three gulls are still lovely.

Chapter LVI

From the ship, the smoke of the torments of the boiling whale is going up like the smoke over a village of smithies; and to windward, a black cloud, rising up with earnest of squalls and rains, seems to quicken the activity of the excited seamen.

Life is full of black clouds, some pass quickly, and other linger. Here a black cloud calls the seamen to action, whether from excitement and anticipation, or from anxiety, we are not told. 

1987 MOBY DICK Russian Language

One cold day in the fall, the editor came home from teaching at the local college at which he has a minor teaching gig, to discover in the mail box a package, wrapped and stamped and traveled from RUSSIA.

He was perplexed but assumed that it was just another EBAY purchase that he had lost track of.
Upon, opening however, there was such an intriguing card. "Dear Mr. Pettit, Im a big fan of Moby Dick.... I would like to share this book with you"  - Katya

We were intrigued and after some time searching and emailing we met, on line, Katya and thanked her for this lovely gift to the collection.

In the course of corresponding to Katya, we learned that she is a graphic designer, loves the illustrations, and is fascinated by the story. She came into possession of this book, and as its a duplicate of one she already had, her friend suggested that she send it to us. We are so thrilled and honored of that jesture.

Visit her blog post here.


Chapter XLV The Affidavit
The ship, however, was by no means a large one: a Russian craft built on the Siberian coast, and purchased by my uncle after bartering away the vessel in which he sailed from home.

This is a rare and wonderful gift.

1977 Easton Press Moby-Dick

 One of the most common editions available is the Easton Press. A search of Ebay found no less than 100 active listings ranging from $10 to $50 or so. This copy is near perfect having never been opened. This craftsmanship is wonderful. Illustrations by Robinson Boardman. The paper fine, gold edged, type large and easy to read. 

This is a fine book to have on the side table.

Our love of this work stems not just from the many finely made editions, but also from the text itself. Every page has something worth mulling over.  

Chapter III   The Spouter Inn

On one side hung a very large oil-painting so thoroughly besmoked, and every way defaced, that in the unequal cross-lights by which you viewed it, it was only by diligent study and a series of systematic visits to it, and careful inquiry of the neighbors, that you could any way arrive at an understanding of its purpose. such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows, that at first you almost thought some ambitious young artist, in the time of the New England hags, had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched. ...[but] The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.

Here in the first pages of the book, Melville foreshadows the action to come in the subject of a old dark painting on the wall of the Inn. Whale versus ship, with the ship on the losing end. 

NB: "in the time of the New England hags"  LOL - ed. 

Undated Carlton House Moby-Dick

Recent purchase, this undated volume comes with a dandy slip cover, but its best feature is the leather cover. The case has saved the leather from the ravages of time.

On the inside cover is a book plate: John Henderson Talley   There are several John Henderson Talleys in the google search, but we choose this one. Its just a nature of the human race that we are all related eventually and so it is with this John Henderson Talley, as the editor traces his descent from Wolphert Gerretse Van Kouwenhoven as did JHT.

Chapter 35 The Mast-Head

Let me make a clean breast of it here, and frankly admit that I kept but sorry guard. With the problem of the universe revolving in me, how could I—being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering altitude,—how could I but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whale-ships' standing orders, "Keep your weather eye open, and sing out every time.". 

Sometimes when we are confronted with the challenges of daily life, we lose sight of the bigger picture, and sometimes when we are focused on the bigger picture we lose sight of the daily challenges. Ishmel, to his credit admits that standing on the mast head contemplating the big cosmos, Karl Sagen style, he lost interest in scanning the horizon. We too, while contemplating the bigger picture of our interpersonal life  have seemingly lost sight of that life which is right in front of us. Time to put down the spy glass and to stop looking at the far off stars.

1997 Konemann Classics Moby-Dick

The 1997 Konemann Classics Moby Dick features J M W Turner's The Whale Ship on the cover, and is ubiquitous in bookstores and on line. The paper, type, printing is just so classic and beautiful, with a subtle feel which all combine to make this a "proper book".

 Konemann is a publisher based in Cologne Germany. The book is printed in Hungary. An example of The European Union at its finest (how is that Euro doing guys?). We are unaware, at this time, of any other book in the collection printed abroad yet in the english language. This is something for further study.

Chapter XLV

Owen Chase: The dark ocean and swelling waters were nothing, the fears of being swallowed up by some dreadful tempest, or dashed upon hidden rocks, ... seemed scarcely entitled to a moment's though; the dismal looking wreck, and the horrid aspect and revenge of the whale, wholly engrossed my reflections....

Owen Chase recalls the wreck of the whale ship Essex, his ship, sunk by a whale, (a true story) and in doing so, he points out that it is not the phantoms of the mind, the possible out comes of future events that haunt him, it is the actions of the whale that stove his ship and left him adrift that horrifies and frightens him. 

Melville sets the stage for the ultimate destruction of Ahab and his ship by referencing in this chapter a well known event. Thus he adds strength to the notion that it is not words but actions, it is not the ghosts and goblins of our minds that frame life but actual happenings, real things. 

Real things like a live whale stoving in the side of a wooden ship causing complete wreckage.

We are all warned.

1966 The World's Classics #225 Moby Dick

This book was a gift to the collection, and will remain one of the treasures of the library. 

Thoughtfully tucked in the back is the bill of sale. The book is diminutive, dust jacketed yet damaged. 

At some point in the years it was subjected to a bit of mold. There is remnants of disease on the boards.  We will never know how or when the injury occurred, and to the casual observer the book looks whole and proper. But there is always going to be a bit of hesitation when others come in contact with this book. Questions will always be raised. This edition may never be able to take a solid spot in the row of other Moby-Dicks, its neighbors will try to scoot away, gain some distance, perhaps looking for the antibacterial hand soap if they accidentally touch.

Sadly, because of this underlying damage, this book will always be a bit out of place. It will have a difficult time of fitting in, but since it is aware, it will grow old with a grace few "normal" books have. 

Chapter LX Queequeg in His Coffin

... if a man made up his mind to live, mere sickness could not kill him: nothing but a whale, or a gale, or some violent, ungovernable, unintelligent destroyer of that sort.

Imagine the destroyer of sort that tried to take this book out... perhaps it was a backed up sewer drain that over flowed its vent, or a flat roof that rain made its way threw, or some other damp invader of the home.  In fact this book had made up its mind to live long before that happened, live so that someone could give it as a gift to someone else. That damp invader was not destroyer enough to kill this book. 

Now imagine that same destroyer aiming at our IPAD... We are fairly of the opinion that the IPAD will just roll over, whimper, and exhale some foul smelling vapors... and be done with it.  Never to be aware of its own "humanity" never to grow old with grace, never to be such a thoughtfully provoking, and wonderfully cherished gift as this edition. 

1991 Everyman's Library Alfred A. Knopf MOBY DICK

The nicest things can come in plain packages. Things with little embellishments, little fan fare, modest statements. This edition is such a thing. The red cloth binding, with a small hint of gold and elegant typeset on the cover, is understated. The overall impression is one of quiet reserve, grace and charm.

Individual people, too, can be unassuming and full of quiet reserve, grace and charm. The best ones become friends and most often are those who don't even know their true nature and strength. 

• Chapter 86 The Tail  ....Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.

Alas, we own an Ipad, it has proven very useful, for watching movies, for writing and reading emails, for surfing the web. We downloaded on to the Ipad both Beethoven's 1st symphony and the Missa Solemnis, which are imposingly beautiful but sound less so on the tiny speakers. This ipad will never be beautiful and no doubt it will be recycled soon. Reading a novel on it may prove rewarding, but never long lasting.

This volume is imposingly beautiful and hence is endowed with real strength and thus the magic of Melville's words radiate from the page. And this volume is long lasting. As long lasting as ours and Beethoven's Unsterbliche Geliebte.

1928 Pickwick Publishers Romances of Herman Melville

The Moby Dick Collection was conceived to contain only editions of the novel, not abridged, not children's, and not compliations of Melville's works. That said here is just such a compilation. TMDC is meant to be a conundrum. A collection of contradictions.

It struck us as odd: The Romances of Herman Melville.  At first one might suspect that this volumn is the story of the daliances of Mr. Melville's amorous side but actually this book are his adventure stories, sagas of journeys, sea stories, not the fluff of love: flowers and chocolates, hearts and arrows. Yet as we thought more about that title we asked ourselves: what is love but if not an adventure, what is romance then but the love of life and its journey, long or short, often altruistic and in the company of someone we would be honored to spend time with. So we bought the book.

Seven Melville works from Typee to Redburn, each in its entirety. And of course Moby-Dick. Each a memory of an adventure, a journey worth living thru the reading.

And what a treasure this book is: seriously heavy, thick, soft leather covers, golden edged paper, and luscious illustrations. The book itself is a metaphor for romance: serious, heavy, thick, soft, golden and luscious. How many romances have we had? Seven? Eight? Each one an adventure, each one worth the memories.

Chapter 125

... man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude.

1937 Garden City Publishing Co. Moby-Dick

Rockwell Kent is by far the best known of the Moby-Dick illustrators, and there are multiple editions that feature his remarkable work.  The Garden City deluxe edition has eluded us for many years. So happy we are to have recently scored this copy. 

Chapter 49

Ishmael, and the rest of the crew have topped off their last wills and testaments, and are preparing for the future:

Now then, thought I, unconsciously rolling up the sleeves of my frock, here goes for a cool, collected dive at death and destruction, and the devil fetch the hindmost.

The future can no longer wait, its time to move on to things put off too long.

1981 University of California Press - Arion Press Moby Dick

 

Much sought after, the Arion Press Moby Dick, illustrated by Barry Mosher, is a treat. The type face is big and juicy and easy to read, the size of the book is solid, befitting a novel of such weight, and the illustrations are delicate and accessible. 

There are four copies in the collection, a 1981 hardcover, and three soft cover, one unread (6th printing, courtesy of Tim, a fan of this blog), one read (2nd reprinting), and the small sized one, (1st 1983 printing), which we use as a reading copy.

Chapter 87

... under the influence of that strange perplexity of inert irresolution...

Melville has a way of seeing a precise moment of time.

Sitting in amongst the giant pod of whales, which had ceased its commotion, all waited for the next move.  Here is a silent stillness as whales and men pause.

1950 Modern Library Edition Moby Dick

The dust jacket illustration features Ahab, left pegged leg, sighting his position by shooting the sun with a sextant.

This copy, near perfect, is the #119 in the Modern Library series, published in 1950, right after WWII, in time for the economic expansion of the 50's. TV's just around the corner.

Chapter XV Chowder

As its getting colder here in Albany, I reread this chapter, a chapter of warmth and comfort, for there is nothing more comforting to this old salt on a cold day than a cup, no a bowl, of clam chowder.."the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt."

We love how Melville mixes it up: not salt and peppa but pepper before the salt. 

Chowder for breakfast, chowder for lunch, chowder for dinner, and never never never a red chowder, Manhattan chowder is not Chowder, I don't know what it is, but its not chowder.

1950 is the birth year of the editor of TMDC, and he too is shooting the sun to find his location.

Lake Zurich Public Library Moby-Dick

Recent purchase from EBAY, the Grosset and Dunlap edition of MOBY DICK. Ex Lib from the Lake ZURICH PUBLIC Library, marked with the big D on the front, D for discard.

While the book is undated, it perhaps is a 70's imprint since the Library was formed in 1973. 

The only date stamp in the book is Apr 18 1979, presumably the patron returned it since this book was clearly discarded from the system.

Library bindings are purposeful and well thought out. This book has decades more use in it, and thus can be viewed as a testament to our wasteful society, there is no rational reason that this book could not have sat on ELAArea Public Library's shelves for years to come and been recirculated thru the population. Other than it is not perfection. Perfection is never achieved, by the way, its only a phantom.

We enjoy folks who aim for perfection, enjoy them a lot.

1926 Modern Library Moby-Dick - Two Prizes

Here is the 1926 Modern Library Moby-Dick, classic red cloth cover from the house of Bennett Cerf, already covered in a previous post.

On the inside is a large award plate from the Halifax Academy, June 19, 1942 given to Douglas Rogers, for the Grade 10 prize in mathematics.

A search from Halifax Academy failed to produce anything for the school, only the motto E Mari Merces confirms the connection with Halifax Canada.

In thinking about this volume, given 69 years ago to a young Doug Rogers, we pondered how proud he must have been to receive it. We can see him walking up to the person who today would be called "head of school", shaking their hand and almost defiantly walking back to retake his seat among his peers.

We then recalled a similar award, given almost 19 years later to the editor of TMDC, who remembers all too well the elation he felt when he received the Armstrong Award at the Sheppard Knapp School, outside of Worcester Mass. - now defunct.  The Armstrong award was given in memory of a lad who fell from a tree to his untimely death. The precise characteristics of the children who received the award were always a mystery, it was not academic nor sports related. Now it could be said it was a catch all kind of thing, given to some kid otherwise left out of the award stream, perhaps too shy to have close friends, too normal to have successes in sports, too smart to excel in main stream academics. But a likable child non the less, a child everyone would agree was a good kid.

The letter in Olson's Small Boat Seamanship, with yellowing tape, is in the controlled precise and neat hand of Mrs. Halkyard, the wife of the Headmaster, and the woman who began Mr. Pettit's latin journey. There is a decided left learn to the letters, signaling perhaps left handedness, and an erie hand writing quality that is exactly similar to little Billy Pettit's own left handed mother's precise, controlled and neat handwriting.

We will assume that if the Armstrong Award were given today, or the Halifax Academy X Grade Math Prize for that matter,  in the form of an ebook, 40 years from now, that E Book would no longer function. It would have been recycled or jettisoned into the land fill long before. The memories just that, vague memories of a lad proudly receiving yet another electronic device, cutting edge for the moment. Fleeting... gone... dust... nothing left to share.

1998 Dutch Language Moby-Dick

Noem me Ismael.

When my tenants, Peter and Lynn, told me that they were moving out, I was saddened. They lived in the third floor flat of building I own here in Albany, and had been there for several years.

I remember the day that I rented to them. There were several people who were interested in it, thanks to Criags List, and I said I was going to show it on this particular Thursday at noon. Lynn came and several other people.

Lynn immediately said she loved it and wanted to move in. Great said I. We did the paper work and she told me that she was moving in with her boyfriend, Peter. Both were studying at SUNY Albany for advanced degrees and Peter was Dutch.

They were great tenants, always curteous and pleasant. Lovely people, and when they got married I silently rejoiced. So it is the normal course of events that my tenants move on and sure enough they got jobs in the lower Hudson River Valley.

The day they left Lynn called and said she had a gift for me. And thus this addition to the Moby-Dick Collection arrived. Words will never properly convey the sum of our relationship for those years, it was easy going at its best...

Good Luck Lynn and Peter!

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.

1929 Macrae Smith Illustrated Moby Dick

Here is a spectacular cover. Nantucket slay ride!

Recent addition to the collection it is inscribed Wayne Ralston, Jr Jan 14th 1929.

Wayne was the sellers relation, and judging by the penciling on the end papers, he was a kid when he had the book, it is so wonderful to have a child's well read book in the collection.

He penciled the word "misery" on the side of the book. SO much to speculate on, with that one word. We are so tempted to think that he found the story ponderous, as so many have, but what if that was some sort of 1929 cry for help just after the stock market crash? or some other nasty not even dared to think about?

1928 Allyn and Bacon Edition, Moby-Dick

Here is a well worn, abridged copy of Moby-Dick.

This is a publication of Allyn and Bacon, headquartered in Boston and still in existence.

Stamped "Property of the Board of Education, City of New York, Jan 8, 1932". The text was editied by Earl Maltby Benson, born Jan. 1884, Beta Theta Pi, 1906 Wesleyan and hailed from West Winfield NY, which was named for Winfield Scott, who was known as "Old Fuss and Feathers", longest serving general in American History. Mr. Benson was from a long line of yankees and taught at the English High School in Boston.

Credits in the volume include: "Colonel E. H. R. Greene for permission to photograph the Charles W. Morgan." Greene is the incorrect spelling in this case. Colonel Green was the son of Hetty Green, the "Witch of Wall Street" once the richest woman in the US. In 1924 he bought the Charles W. Morgan and kept it at his home in Dartmouth Massachusetts on Buzzards Bay. My grandfather summered near by at Salters Point, and my mother recalled to me the excursions they took by "motor car" to visit the whaling ship at Colonel Greene's home. Later the Charles W. Morgan was transfered to Mystic Seaport, where, as most people know, she still is.

On the inside back cover is a stamp of the WPA.

1926 Jonathan Cape Edition, London Moby-Dick

Alas, this lovely Moby-Dick volume is abridged. That is the failure of this volume. See the last paragraph of this post.

However, the title page and illustration is a testament to the art of graphic design. The layout, colorful, clean and crisp equates to elegant.

Rowland Hilder, the illustrator, worked this commision shortly after he studied at Goldsmith's College School of Art.

This illustration of the Pequod conveys a open sea air like few book illustrations in the collection. Had the publisher left this volume untouched, this would have been the greatest edition published to the date of publication. Only the Rockwell Kent editions which come 5 years later would have eclipse it. And I may say that the number of illustrations Kent executes may be one of the factors, the work that Hilder does here is equal to Kent in genius.

For those of you who want to know more.. here is an article that I stumbled on this article, which upon reading, I thought was worthy. The explanation of Melville and his digressions at the start is the POINT- for those of you who have found Moby-Dick a "hard read". Relax about that, get over it, and enjoy the digressions...