Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Herman Melville. Redburn: His First Voyage. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1849.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Description: 1849 1st edition, 2nd state (BAL) --with the extended ads (18). VG- in its decorative, blindstamped green cloth, with bright gilt-lettering to the spine. Light fraying at the spine crown and one 1" chip at the foot of the spine (affecting the lettering). Significant discoloration as well to the front and rear endpapers. Still though, a solid and perfectly presentable copy. 12mo, 390 pgs. plus publisher's ads.
Seller: APPLEDORE BOOKS, ABAA, WACCABUC, NY, U.S.A.
Melville, Herman. Redburn: His First Voyage. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1849.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First printing with with publisher's advertisements ending on p. 10. xi, [12]-390, [4], 10 pp. Hardcover, bound in publisher's purple cloth, with yellow endpapers, neatly recased. Edge-wear. Small bookplate. Corner dampstain early; overall marginal toning.
Seller: Moroccobound Fine Books, IOBA, Lewis Center, OH, U.S.A.
Melville, Herman. Redburn: His First Voyage. Harper, New York, 1849.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: BAL's first state. Original cloth, spine faded with a bit of loss to spine ends, foxing to pages, blue shield stamp to copyright page, still a sound copy, scarce with the first state ads.
Seller: Graver & Pen Rare Books, Midland, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Description: Second Printing. Octavo; bound in publisher's purple 'A' cloth stamped in gilt on the spine, with yellow clay-coated endpapers and double flyleaves; pp. i-xii, 13-390, with advertisements paginated i-iv, 1-11, 14, 1-2. Cloth faded several shades at the spine, with gilt titling dulled but still legible; contemporary inscription at the top of the title page, a few spots of soiling to the panels, with marginal soiling to the pastedowns and endpapers and light foxing to the preliminary and terminal leaves; certainly the better end of Very Good, completely unrestored, and without chipped or tears to the binding. A pleasing copy of the author's fifth book, housed in a lovely quarter Morocco-bound clamshell case. BAL 13660.
Seller: Captain Ahab's Rare Books, ABAA, Stephenson, VA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Description: First American edition, second printing (with advertisements extended). xi, [i], [13]-390, [4, ads], 14 [i.e. 12] (ads dated October 1849), 2 (ads) pp. 1 vols. 8vo. BAL 13660; Wright Fiction 1866 Publisher's blue blindstamped cloth. Light wear to extremities, some foxing to text throughout. Very good xi, [i], [13]-390, [4, ads], 14 [i.e. 12] (ads dated October 1849), 2 (ads) pp. 1 vols. 8vo First American edition, second printing (with advertisements extended).
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Herman Melville. Redburn. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1849.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: a rare mixed issue of this rare book, Melville's own youth on the seas. This copy has only 14 pages of ads at the end numbered, there are four leaves of special Melville titles, not numbered, and a final leaf of extra works. The 2nd issue calls for 18 numbered ad leaves. The first calls for only 10 pps of ads. REDBURN: HIS FIRST VOYAGE. NewYork: Harper, 1849. First edition, first binding,first state with 14 pages of ads instead of 18.Original brick cloth embossed gilt. Spine faded a tad, re laid down by Alan Grace of Surrey UK, note the boards and interior is near fine, or very good, with only some light blemishes to the covers, in other words,a tight clean copy of a book rarely found in the first state. There was but a singleprinting of 4,508 copies; by the time of theHarper fire of 1853, 2,433 copies had been boundin cloth, and 1,955 in wrappers. The firedestroyed the 120 remaining unbound copies and 176unsold bound copies. Although specific numbersrelating to the first state are unknown, it ismuch scarcer than the second state; even thecopyright deposit copy was a second state copy.The book was published between November 10 and 17,1849. BAL13660.
Seller: Hirschfeld Galleries, Saint Louis, MO, U.S.A.
MELVILLE, Herman. Redburn: His First Voyage. , 1849.
Price: US$1650.00 + shipping
Description: MELVILLE, Herman. Redburn: His First Voyage. Being the Sailor-boy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-Gentleman, in the Merchant Service. Original blindstamped cloth. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849. First American edition, second printing with extended advertisements at rear. BAL 13660. WRIGHT I, 1865. Spine lightly faded, light wear to head of spine and corners, faint scattered foxing, bookplate, else a very good copy.
Seller: G.S. MacManus Co., ABAA, Bryn Mawr, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First American edition (English preceded), according to *BAL's* second printing with October 1849 ads (a point we've heard convincingly refuted). Octavo. Pp. xi, [i], [13]-390, followed by [18] pages of publisher's ads, dated "October, 1849" (ads have irregular pagination, but complete as issued: [i-iv], [1]-11, 14 (i.e. no 12/13), [2]). Publisher's purple cloth spine stamped in gilt, coated yellow endpapers. Owner's early, neat pencil name on front flyleaf ("C. F. Blodgett"), spine is very slightly faded, with shallow nicks to cloth at tips of spine, corners a little bumped, coated endpapers are darkened as usual), scattered foxing to text, a handsome, very good copy. Melville's autobiographical novel, based on his experiences as a boy, from a poor New York family. *BAL* 13660; binding A.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Melville, Herman. Mardi: and a Voyage Thither. Harper & Brothers, 1849.
Price: US$2890.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: For backward or forward, eternity is the same; already have we been the nothing we dread to be. ***Melville's third novel. First American edition, first printing. Publisher's blind-stamped brown cloth, spine gilt. 8 pages of ads in the rear of volume II as called for. Bindings a touch skewed, corners and spine ends lightly bumped, usual scattered foxing, endpapers discolored by binder s glue per usual, rear blank leaves excised from volume one and second rear blank leaf almost completely so from volume two - these excisions a seemingly common binder practice in this edition. Overall, a solid and bright Near Fine set.*** 'Presented as narratives of his own South Sea experiences, Melville's first two books had roused incredulity in many readers. Their disbelief, he declared, had been "the main inducement" in altering his plan for his third book, Mardi: and a Voyage Thither. Melville wanted to exploit the "rich poetical material" of Polynesia and also to escape feeling "irked, cramped, & fettered" by a narrative of facts. "I began to feel . . . a longing to plume my pinions for a flight," he told his English publisher. Mardi began as a sequel to Typee and Omoo, but changed radically while he was writing it and emerged as an altogether independent and original work. In its combination of adventure, allegorical romance, realistic portraits of characters and scenes from nature, philosophical speculation, and travelogue-satire, Mardi was Melville's first attempt to create a great work of fiction.' (Northwestern)*** [Bibliography of American Literature, 13658]***Please email us for better pricing.
Seller: Anniroc Rare Books, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
Melville, Herman. Redburn. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1849.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing. A beautiful copy bound in the ORIGINAL publisher's cloth. The book is in great shape. The binding is tight with NO cocking or leaning with minor wear to the boards. The pages are clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A wonderful copy in collector's condition. We buy Melville First Editions.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.