Herman Melville, 1869

MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Omoo: A Narrative of Adventure in the South Seas. New York: Harper & Bros., 1855.

A presentation copy of Melville’s second book, inscribed to the captain of his son Stanwix’s ship. Omoo, the sequel to Typee, describes the author’s adventures in Tahiti. Here it is inscribed: “Capt. Josiah Paul of ship ‘Yokohama’ from HM.” In 1869, two years after his first son Malcolm's suicide, Melville's second son Stanwix decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and Uncle Thomas and go to sea. Capt. Josiah Paul was a friend of Thomas’s and through him arrangements were made for Stanwix to ship with him on the Yokohama (an April 1869 letter from Augusta Melville to a cousin notes that Herman "had known him for years"). The clipper ship Yokohama sailed from New York for China on 4 April 1869 and before it departed, Herman and other members of the family visited the dock in New York—perhaps when when this presentation was made. Stanwix would also die young, in 1886, at the age of 35, alone in Sacramento. The present copy is the sixth edition. Presentation copies of Omoo are rare: ABPC records only this copy inscribed by the author.

Octavo (186 x 120mm). Map (puncture and tear to dedication leaf and small puncture to center of map on leaf preceding, rear endpaper lacking, some browning internally). Later 19th century half calf (some rubbing to spine and extremities). Provenance: Captain Josiah Paul – Sotheby's New York, 21 June 2007, lot 131.