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...

1980 Signet Classic Moby-Dick paperback

Bent corners, warn parts, underlining and check marks, dirty end papers, all the hall mark of a read book.

Here is the 1980 Signet Classic Moby-Dick that is inscribed G. Eric Lilja Mallory house . Actually G. Eric Lilja wrote his name in 3 locations, just to be sure that this book screams "Belongs to me!".

Maybe Mallory House is the same house of that name at Oberlin College. There is a small linkage between Albany NY and Oberlin. Perhaps someday Eric will stumble on the post or some one who knows him, and comment. That would be brilliant! Please do.

Eric underlined and noted in the margins in a very elegant creative and precise hand. The kind of handwriting that TMDC adores.

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?

1929 Macmillan Company Moby-Dick in 2 vols

I have discussed one of the many wonders of collecting a book and that wonder is the history and mystery of the individual editions, who owned them and did they read the book. Try that with an Apple I Pad!

Recently, I purchased the 2 volume Macmillan Co. 1929 edition. I own oddly Vol 2 not vol 1 so I was pleased to find this duo and when they arrived I was more pleased to see both were inscribed in the same neat hand by the purchaser: Dorothy Louise Harding, Radcliffe '30. Dorothy also was kind enough to take notes in the end of vol 1, which either indicated that she read the the book, or at least took notes in class!

Radcliffe College which became fully absorbed into Harvard University in 1999, once was one of the seven sisters, which now are either the six sisters, or the five sisters depending on how one views Vassar College, which no longer is a single sex institution, thus is arguably not a sister at all.

I choose not to show much detail of the covers, as the story inside is much more compelling.

1967 Norton Critical Edition - Paperback Moby Dick

One of the most common phrases people speak after seeing the Moby-Dick Collection is: Its all the same book right!

They are perplexed, "its the same words, so how many do you need?"

But are they the same words? Not entirely.

For a moment regard the 1967 Norton Critical Edition of Moby-Dick, as an example, nothing special about it, in fact this copy has A. Hawley signed in red pen on the inside, the cover is broken, and judging by the overall condition, A. Hawley probably never finished reading it...

His or her markings and underlinings stop at page 26, therefore he or she never made it to page 44 to read the words of the hymn read by Father Maple, and specifically un read is the first line of the second stanza: "I saw the open maw of Hell..."

Maw: The mouth, stomach, jaws, or gullet of a voracious animal, especially a carnivore.

Heck of an image, the open mouth of Hell ready to receive the offering...

Checking the 1919 Page Edition of Moby-Dick, already posted, the hymn is on page 43, and the first line of the second stanza reads: "I saw the opening maw of Hell...."

Open vs Opening. Still heck of an image. This edition carries the Copyright, 1892 Elizabeth S. Melville. So presumably this is the "official" text.

Furthermore, checking the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of Moby-Dick, page 42 has the opening line of the second stanza: "I saw the opening maw of Hell....". From the back cover: "The aim of this edition of Moby-Dick, ... is to present a text as close to the author's intention as surviving evidence permits."

Conclusion: The Norton text is in error. This may or may not be a typo, every other Norton Edition has the same wording, and in no other printed text can this wording be found.

1967 Norton Critical text

1919 Page text

1988 Northwestern- Newberry text.

Both the Norton and Northwestern edidtions were edited by Harrison Hayford.

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!"