Estimated Price:

$1,800 - $2,000

Realized Price:

$325

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Title: Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas
Author: Herman Melville - Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel "Moby-Dick" and the posthumous novella "Billy Budd." His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, "Typee," becoming a bestseller), and after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially "Moby-Dick," which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.
Publisher: Harper & Brothers, Publishers
City: New York
Year: 1847
Printing Information: First Edition
Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: [i-ix] x-xii [xiii] xiv-xv [xvi] [17]18-389,[1],[xv]-xxiii,[1], 8pp.
Width: 5.25" Height: 7.25"
Book Details: The English edition was published a month before the American edition.


Melville's second book, the (somewhat) fictionalized account of the mutiny on the Julia and his adventures as a beachcomber in Tahiti. "Omoo" - the Polynesian word for one who roves or wanders - together with the slightly earlier "Typee" (1846) were the first explicit and accurate accounts of Polynesian life to be written (Hill).
Condition / Notes: This is a rare first American edition of Melville's second book, preceded by the London edition. Antique volume is elegantly bound in re-cased original (or period) blind-stamped brown cloth boards. Bright gilt lettering appears on spine with raised bands. Volume shows loss of material at ends of spine, otherwise binding has moderate external wear. Lettering on half title page is in red; lettering on title page in red and black. Pages show foxing throughout. Work is illustrated with South Seas frontispiece map and one in-text illustration on page 104. Publisher's 8 1/2 page notice for the revised edition of "Typee" bound at rear.


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