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...

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. 

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.  

1981 Oxford University Press, Moby Dick

Of all the publishers of editions of Moby-Dick in this collection, The Oxford University Press seems to be responsible for most number of the fish in this particular school of fish, and whether it is a quirk of this school alone, or indicative of the entire shoal of all the schools of Moby-Dick's, I can only speculate.

As far as I can learn, The Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world and began publishing around 1480, although it did not print a Moby - Dick then, that would be weird.

There are seven catalogued Oxford books in the collection with the earliest one is dated 1921. Some of the paper backs have yet to be catalogued so there are, for sure, many more housed here in Albany.

This species is a recent capture, and a fine example of the late 20th century marketing foray into the fine book field. That was a trend, dominated by the likes of Easton Press and the Franklin Mint, who brought to market high end bindings, gold and leather, with the hopes of capturing sales to those folks who wanted nice looking shelves of books in their homes, and most likely they never read any of them. How would a Kindle compete in this market? Riddle me that, Batman.

This Oxford Edition is relatively hard to find.

Purchase date: 2011

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?