Herman Melville

MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). The Confidence-Man. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857.

A lovely copy of the first English edition of Melville's final novel. "The English edition of this book is as rare as the English issue of The Piazza Tales. However it is not the American sheets with a cancel leaf, but an entirely new setting of type, and was evidently produced by the English publisher Longman, Brown, Green, Longman's and Roberts. Hawthorne made arrangments for its English pulication on Melville's behalf" (Reese). The English edition was possibly issued simultaneously with the American—BAL has a question mark on this point. BAL 13671 (B endpapers, “Books on Rural Sports,” no priority).

Octavo. Publisher’s ads printed on endpapers, 24 pp. catalogue dated September 1855 at rear. Original cloth (front hinge cracked, spine dull, wear at rear joint, general minor rubbing). Custom chemise and slipcase.

Exhibited: "A Herman Melville Collection ... on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death, from the collection of William S. Reese," Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, 1991, no. 28.