8vo. 6pp. publisher's ads at end. (Heavy spotting throughout as usual.) Original red cloth [BAL first binding, A cloth], cover bordered in blind and with central Harper & Brother's circular stamp in blind, spine lettered in gilt, brownish orange coated endpapers (rebacked preserving original spine and endpapers, light soiling and few small rough areas to covers); folding case.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, IN THE BAL FIRST BINDING (priority established), following the 3-volume English edition by a month and contains thirty-five passages not present in that edition. In Grolier’s One Hundred Influential American Books, Melville’s great novel can best be described as containing “the sounds and scents, the very flavor, of the maritime life of our whaling ancestors” and in Johnson’s High Spots, a “masterpiece” after rising from semi-obscurity in the 20th century. BAL 13664; Grolier American 60; Johnson’s American First Editions, p.247; Johnson, High Spots of American Literature p.57.