MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1866.

First edition of Melville's first collection of poetry. Battle-Pieces was written in response to the Civil War. Its lack of financial success would send Melville to his post at the Customs House where he would serve in obscurity for two decades. It was not until the twentieth century that critics began to argue for his place within the American poetic tradition; in The Civil War World of Herman Melville, Stanton Garner describes Melville as “the third participant in the mid-19th-century American poetic revolution,” alongside Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. BAL 13673.

Octavo. (Small corner chip to dedication leaf, and the upper corner of title and following leaf creased and fragile.) Original green cloth, gilt-stamped spine, brown coated endpapers (upper hinge very tender, mild rubbing to extremities, tiny chip to front free endpaper).