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?

Ramblings...

Today I was walking the stacks of a library and discovered this gem. 1930 edition, Russian language, Rockwell Kent, Random House, stamped: printed in the USSR. All I could say was wow, wow, wow. I have no idea how many were printed, I have never seen a listing for it. LG's comment: "Holy S#*T" when I sent her the picture.

Also, over at Ahab Beckons, Gansevoort pointed me to an edition I dont have.

So many editions, so much time!

1969 Collier Paper Back Edition

This paper back edition is prized for its psychedelic '60's cover and the introduction written by Quentin Anderson, Professor at Columbia University.

Its interesting that the cover art primarily features the face of a person reflected in the water and not a whale, perhaps that face is Ahab, and perhaps not. There is really no indication as to who that is.

Tilting the cover on its side, one can then perhaps also make out a white whale in the act of consuming the face? Which only then indicates that it is perhaps Ahab. That ambiguity was a hallmark of the '60's art, and often times not a very successful form.

The whale boat and the Pequod are drawn with some precision, while the face and the white whale are all jittery and spooky, that juxtaposition in styles is hard to reconcile, again setting up a ambiguity that is not that successful.

No, you perhaps would guess that I was not a big fan of 60's art when I was in college in the 60's. As an art form it is interesting historically, and some pop art has merit, but in my book it was a failure and has no lasting power. Here in Albany resides one of the largest public collections of 60's art, accumulated by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Now I am a hugh Rocky fan. A visit to the Plaza Art Collection, is actually worth the effort, it is a segment specific collection.

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...

The Unexpected Weekend in New Haven

My father, as he has in the past, sent me last weekend as his emmissary to the annual meeting of an ancient New England Society, one that my dad has been a member of for decades. This society is dedicated to preserving the printed American page thru 1871.

One year, I had the pleasure of going to the Grolier Club in New York and viewing that awesome building and collection.

This year, I traveled to New Haven. The Society held its annual meeting in the Yale Center for British Art, and I can not say enough about that collection. Constable is one of my inpirations as a painter and there is a plethora of his sky paintings there.

One of the nights, the Society was the guest of Prof R... for drinks and dinner and were welcomed into his home. I arrived to a lovely home, gracious wife, beautiful food, lovely friends...

Completely unexpected, I walked over to the bookcase shown above. Heretofore, I had not the inkling of what I was in for: as I gazed at these bright leather books and protective cases, one name popped out: Melville, and titles: Ommo, Typee and of course Moby-Dick. These were not the mundane volumes I own, but first editions, not just one, but several, not just Moby-Dick but all of the titles. There was the first British edition of Moby-Dick... and Rockwell Kents, not the ho hum one I have but the "3 in the can", and even the presentation set in pig skin, I believe he said it was pig skin. He did say there were only 6 in existence. I held in my hand not just the English first edition but that presentation Rockwell Kent.

I stood there stunned and at a loss for words, then I noticed small bindings, thin things, and as I realized what I was looking at, I said incredulously: "Are these Melville letters?"

"OH, yes Bill take a look, just dont spill anything on them" Prof R said...

Gently I took one of the many small leather folders off of the shelf and opened it up. In my hand I held a letter written by Herman Melville. I was so awed that I failed to take note to whom and about what. It did not seem to matter anymore, I was speechless.

At the time I really didn't know what to say about this experience, other than this: one of the other guests, a historian of some note said to me later that night: "this is the beauty of the private collector, you can touch things."

To Prof R, I will be forever in his debt and can never repay his kindness....

As for the future of my Moby-Dick Collection... for obvious reasons my collection will never be the kind of collection which I saw on Friday night. But as I drove home and reflected on my collection it became more and more apparent to me that my mission has been and will always be to collect the pedestrian, the mundane, the humble. As I explained it over the phone to LG, during the homeward bound trip, the Moby-Dick Collection blogged about here is a combination of Ray Bradbury's Farenhiet 451 and the Land of the Lost. My mission is to buy everything I can as fast as I can. Because of the Kindle and Nook and I Pad, there will be a day when there are no more paper backs available. We as a society love to throw stuff out and the paper backs will be the first to go. I will have a collection of those paper backs and hard covers, the ones that Prof R doesnt have... The mission is to save the dust jackets, the covers, the type, the illustrations, and the underlining and notes taken... the individuality of each book, once owned and once read...

And of course, when I show my humble collection to friends and visitors, Just as Prof R did for me..I have always, always given them the volume to hold as I point out some quirk that takes my fancy..... Now I know why I do that.... . We, individuals, are not institutions, what we own we own to preserve and share. Hopefully we make a difference. I am unaware of a museum that started organically without the backing of a collector.

Please comment . . . Thanks - BP

1956 L. W. Singer Company MOBY-DICK

This is one crazy cover. I love the type and it would appear that someone added that little color of red. This is the 1956 printing of the original dated edition of 1942 by the L. W. Singer Company from Syracuse, NY.

At one time it was $1.20 as marked in pencil on the inside cover. When it was for sale at the Bryn Mawr Bookstore it was marked at $.25.

1956 Houghton Miffflin Co. MOBY-DICK

Here is the 1956 paperback Houghton Mifflin Co edition of Moby-Dick.

Signed on the cover by the owner: Judith Spiegler.

The book is heavily water stained, and I have no idea where it came from. No doubt it was in the stock of the Bryn Mawr Bookshop in Albany, when I and 3 friends bought the store and renamed it the Larkstreet Bookshop. I then lifted it for the collection.

Judith began underlining and marking it right from the Table of Contents. And on the back end paper she began notes right at the top of the page written in pencil.

Here is an example of her underlining:

pg 222 Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glid under water. Beside which she wrote: Sea-truth

Often a book will easily open to the last page read and this book opens to page 240, which coincidentally is the last page with underlining.

Here she underlined: go to the meatmarket of a Saturday night..... Cannibals? who is not a cannibal? Did she see humor in that? Irony?

Since this is the last underlining, I am going to say here she stopped. The semester was over, or she lost interest.

I searched the internet and came up with this PDF of a 2008-2009 Publication

The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration

Reflections 1

Judith Spiegler Adler

A.M. ‘61

I graduated from SSA in ’61 with an A.M., after having

graduated from the University of Chicago College with a B.A.

in ‘59. ... I began to teach, first at Fordham,

then at the College of New Rochelle.

So timing was right for Judith Spiegler - Adler to be Judith Spiegler of my MOBY-DICK, she graduated from the University of Chicago College in 59. and she went on to teach in New York State first at Fordham and then a little closer to Albany at College of New Rochelle.

Ironic if my Judith is the Chicago Judith....

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.

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...

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

Road Trip - SUNY by way of Arrowhead

Gansevoort, of the blog Ahab Beckons, was kind enough to blog about his trip to see the display of part of the MOBY DICK Collection currently at SUNY Albany. He made a nice day trip by visiting Arrowhead as well. His entry on the AHAB BECKONS blog details it.

In addition to Arrowhead in one could visit Melville's home in Lansingburgh, just north of Troy NY. Its the home of the Lansingburgh Historical Society, and in which Melville wrote his first two novels, Typee and Omoo.

Undated: Thames Publishing Co. London

I have always wanted to live in a very large house, a house with so many rooms that some of the rooms I may not enter but once a year. I think its a psycological quirk of mine. I can imagine the wonder and excitement of entering room after room and trying to figure out: now what is this one for or who uses this utility room.

Anyway back to the Collection: this morning as I went to the shelves to find a book to blog about I came across this edition. I have no recollection as to when or where or even why I have this book... it was like entering that room in that huge house. I said cool, what is this?

Its small, has a really great piece of cover art. Its English! A search of the ABE Books, yield some dated ones, 1954, but they had blue boards and these are red. So I just randomly say 50's, if anyone has any definitive knowledge, comment for me.. thanks!

If you have a few extra moments, take a close look at the cover art: it shows a boat chasing a whale at the ready to harpoon it. Pretty dramatic really, but as I looked at it for a longer time, several things jumped out at me. First there is the problem of the whale, he has stopped running and turned to look at the boat, his eye is menacing... Second and more importantly, there is the problem of the rowers, there are six men in the boat, only 2 are rowing. there are two other men looking aft with nothing to do. I think really they should get out some oars, because this whale, perhaps its meant to be Moby Dick, clearly wants to do them some harm. One little harpoon is not going to do the trick here, this is not going to end well.......

Undated - Books Inc, NY, Moby Dick

Here is the most unusual dust jacket edition in the collection. Guys with a football and a scottie dog! No where is to be found an image of a ship, whales, even the sea! Just a bunch of guys being guys, walking down a fight of steps.. Not one of them even has a book in hand!

On the back of the dust jacket this edition is called "The New Prize Guild Library" - The Worlds Best Books for Boys and Girls.

Moby-Dick is #17 in the series, which includes up to 37 Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

On the title page this is "Art-Type Edition" and "The World's Popular Classics"

The cloths and type style have a 30's feeling so I choose to mark it 1930's. Perhaps not. The lad on the right is wearing knickers (I wore them as a ski outfit in the 60's).

When referring to mens clothing, knickers is short for knickerbockers, while knickers in relation to women is something all together different.

1994 English Edition Moby-Dick

Here is the example of the English Language edition in the collection.

It was pretty easy to pinpoint which of the many english language books is the official "English Language" representative, but I choose this book for two reasons, 1) It is priced in pounds, and 2) it was printed in England by Clays LTD for Penguin Books.

It is a bargain book... my children and I always laugh when we go to a big box book store and walk by the Bargain Book bin at the door. The we ask each other: "Why are bargain books bargains? - because they suck!" Well maybe now we know not all bargain books suck. At least in the UK!

1969 Franklin Watts, Inc Large Type Moby-Dick

Here is the 1969 large type edition from Franklin Watts, Inc., which is listed as a division of Grolier Inc.

This book is ex Lib from the Fraser Valley Regional Library, British Columbia Canada.

The idea for this post comes from a current thread in the blog ahab beckons studying the best edition to read at the MDM.

http://ahab-beckons.blogspot.com/

1925 Grosset & Dunlap Moby-Dick

1925 Grosset & Dunlap Moby-Dick features illustrations taken from the 1926 Warner Bros. movie "The Sea Beast".

This copy has a bookplate showing Jack and the Beanstalk and the name Howard H. Goldsby - a google search yielded no results for Howard.

On the contents page someone, in ink, marked most of the chapters with a check or plus sign with the ledgend: check marks- chapters necessary to the story and plus- sidelights of interest. He completely lined out chapter 22 Cetology. Apparently it fit neither category.

Grosset & Dunlap published many books as Photoplay editions with photos from motion pictures.

Thanks go to Meg at Power Moby Dick for reminding me about this gem.

The Display is up and open

And here is an interview with Mary Darcy for All Over Albany. It is a really good overview of the whole THE MOBY DICK COLLECTION blog... Thanks for all the support I have gotten leading up to the Display!

Regular posts will continue shortly..

Bill

Some thoughts upon the display set up

Saturday, we spent the most part of the late morning making labels and getting the books ready for the installation of the exhibit at the Main University of Albany Library front lobby. (3/14 - 4/24/2011)

There will be one case with some examples of foreign language editions, and one case of the examples of the illustrations of Ahab.

What became clear to me, as I pulled these items all together, was that this exhibit is not so much about the novel, Moby-Dick, but more its about the printing and the presentation of the text. The exhibit shows different languages and various layouts of the text, and the wide variety of the styles of the illustrations. Each edition has a unique soul, and no electronic book will ever have the soul of even one of these books. As I felt the letterpress type of the Lituanian book and the subtle pages of the Japanese book, I felt the heart and soul of the press operator, bindery person, layout artist, and illustrator; I imagined the thousands and thousands of individuals involved in printing these books over the decades. All of their combined work, the hundreds of thousands of man hours, was the result of Melville's two years of dedicated writing, and we can't lose sight of the fact that he wrote the novel in long hand in ink. As I stepped back to look at the sight of the books, I was awed by the entire human effort that has gone into presenting to the world, the story that is the novel Moby-Dick.

1958 Hungarian Language Edition Moby-DIck

The 1958 Hungarian Edition of Moby-Dick, is alas, an abridged edition. The first line appears not to be the famous opening sentence and there appears to be no copy of the hymn.

The cover art is representative of the art, there is an interesting left peg legged Ahab, dressed like John Adams with a frocked coat, but study the cover for a moment, is that not the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz? It is perhaps Ishmael telling his tale years later at the Spouter Inn, but his buggy eyes say it all...

The Moby Dick Collection on Display

From March 14th 2011 to April 30th 2011, selections from the collection will be displayed at the main library on the SUNY Albany Campus.

There are two cases and one will feature illustrated books, focusing on images of Ahab, highlighting the various ways illustrators have chosen to present Melville's iconic captain of the Pequod.

The other case will feature foreign language editions, highlighting the wide distribution the book has received over the years. My only regret to date, is that I passed on buying a braille version years ago, I thought it was too expensive. Non the less the foreign language books bring a wide variety to the display as well.

The Main Library is located at 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, NY and here is Link to directions and maps

http://www.albany.edu/about_visiting_maps_and_directions.php

1907 J. M. Dent Edition of MOBY - DICK

It is generally accepted that the horrific events of World War I, the social changes of the 1920's and the "Melville Revival", all contributed to the success of Moby-Dick as a great novel in the 20th century.

The reading public found in Ahab a kind of kindred spirit in his hopeless obsession and ultimate personal destruction. This spirit mirrored the excesses of both modern warfare and new social mores.

It is well known that Moby-Dick was a literary flop in the nineteenth century, and editions are limited to the first printing run that failed to sell out during Melville's lifetime, and the 1892 edition, also scarce. What saved Moby-Dick from the landfill of history, could be argued, was the industrial revolution of the post Civil War era. As society was given more and more free and leisure time, society filled that time with new and wonderful endeavors, first and foremost was education, schooling replaced milking the cows. Schooling begat financial success and when faced with financial success folks wanted to show that off in their home, so the bookshelves needed to be filled with rows of matching books.

Enter J. M. Dent, an English publisher, who in 1904 began to plan the Everyman's Library. In 1906 he published 152 titles, Moby - Dick was included in 1907. So there it sat for about ten more years still unread, but on a whole lot more shelves in a whole lot more homes than it would have, had Mr. Dent not needed to fill out his offerings... Moby Dick sat on library shelves waiting for the intersection of war, flappers and the Melville Revival.

Feel free to comment, if you have anything you want to add to this or too take issue with what I have stated... Always welcome debate!

Putting Together the Exhibit

Yesterday I dropped off some of the Moby Dick Collection at the University at Albany Library to begin putting together the exhibit of these books.

We are going to highlight the foreign language books and the illustrations of Ahab.

Much thanks go to Lorre Smith of the University for helping me gather my thoughts.

Email me at billpettit at sign mac dot com and I will let you know when the display is installed. At this moment I am not sure how long it will be up. It will open March 14 and at least 2 weeks it will be up, perhaps longer.

Thanks everyone...

Foreign Language Texts - MOBY DICK - Japanese

The Japanese edition, earlier post, broken into 2 volumes, has a great feel with a soft and subtle touch.

Leon Ingulsrud directed Moby-Dick the play in Japan in 2001.

Pictured here is chapter 9, the sermon, as other posts, the hymn.

Each edition in the collection, is unique, individual, distinct. As a composite the collection, is as if its a pod of whales. Could the netbook, IPAD, Kindle, Nook provide such a similar herd of works.... ?

Foreign Language Texts - MOBY DICK - Chinese

In a previous post, the Chinese Language Moby Dick was described. Here is an example of the text of the Hymn in chapter 9, The Sermon, also separately discussed in a previous post.

This is an example of the left to right typesetting of the Chinese characters, the next post will highlight the top to bottom typesetting of the Japanese edition in the collection.

There are several other text example posts that are labeled such.

WARNING: Hugh solar flair, lock up you IPAD

1974 Estonian Language Moby-Dick

Minetage mind Ismaeliks.

Printed with a heavy hand, the 1974 Estonian edition of Moby-Dick, feels like it was letter pressed. Perhaps in the Soviet era it was. The feel of the paper, the tightness of the binding, the crispness of the size, makes this an enjoyable book to hold in the hand.

Marked: Kirjastus eeti raamat="" Tallinn

Translated by Juhan Lohk, whom apparently via an internet search translated a host of classic literature into Estonian.

1994 The Young Collector's Illustrated Classics Moby Dick

The Young Collector's Illustrated Classic is an abridged big type confection brought to the public by Kidsbooks, Inc.

There is no indication as to who the illustrator was, the graphics are by and large bounded by a solid boarder, but this portrait of a right peg legged Ahab, has elements extending to the very edge of the paper, to what purpose, I have no idea.

Head gear is fast becoming an item of interest to me, as Ahab's cover has has some foreshadowing of WWII German naval attire.

And truly his peg leg is just that a peg!

1989 Reader's Digest Moby-Dick

The 1989 edition of Moby-Dick is Readers' Digest's offering. The Reader's Digest is a magazine company and book publishing focused on condensed versions but this series seems to be full length.

The illustrator of this edition, Joseph Ciardiello, has the distinction of being the first of the illustrators of Moby-Dick with his own website.

Ahab is a left pegged, Lincolnish bearded, hatted, old salt. I believe, in this view, he is looking aft, judging by the lean of the rigging, perhaps looking towards a home he knows he will never see again.

1976 Moby-Dick, Norton & Company

Its so interesting to me how many of the illustrators that we have run across in our Ahab portrait study, have a connection to the Art Students League in New York City.

Warren Chappell, who illustrated the Norton edition of Moby-Dick, (see earlier post) studied and taught there.

His Ahab is a left legged fellow, whose peg leg is somewhat elegant and thin. The pea coat, floppy hat and beard give him a salt look.

Also interesting is the fact that there is no hint in this image or any of the other numerous images of Ahab in the book, of a psycological storm brewing. He seems oddly an everyman Ahab.

1962, The Macmillan Company Edition, Moby-Dick

Robert Shore is an american illustrator, studied at the Art Students League, and instructed at Cooper Union, whom has illustrated Heart of Darkness, Benito Cereno as well as this edition of Moby-Dick.

This edition is ExLib from the Metropolitan Dade County

The image of Ahab is haunting as he is holding a harpoon and wearing a bowler, yet the peg leg is so pronounced.

As I am posting, so many interesting facts and future posts come to mind. For instance: Right or Left leg? The majority of the posts of Ahab, so far, show him to have his peg leg on his right leg. I have no time today to refer to the text to see if Melville says right or left? Perhaps someone can comment? Thanks...