Author: MELVILLE, Herman
Title: Narrative of a Four Months' Residence Among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas Islands; or, a Peep at Polynesian Life
Description: London, John Murray, 1846. First Edition. Hardcover. Contemporary half calf leather with matching corners and marbled boards and endpapers, gilt-ruled spine with two matching gilt-lettered black morocco spine labels; xviii, 285 pages, no terminal ads with the half-title page present. BAL 13652: First Issue of page 19. Illustrated with a map at page xviii with an additional copy of the map on old paper tipped in before the title page. First printing of Melville's first book, issued in an edition of 4,048 copies and preceding the American edition, titled TYPEE, of the same year. Largely based upon the author's experience living in the Marquesas after he deserted from the whaler Acushnet in 1842. Text very clean, free from foxing; rubbing and light edgewear to the binding. Very Good to Near Fine Other than MOBY DICK, the most widely read of Melville's novels.

Keywords: Herman Melville, Polynesia, 19th Century American Literature, First Book, Travel, South Seas, 19th Century Literature 19th Century American Literature First Book Literature: American South Seas


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