Notes—(i) This book was published on September 29, 1849. The English edition predates the American one. 750 copies were printed.
(ii) I have seen a copy of this edition bearing on the case the name of T. C. Newby as publisher, but with the Bentley title-page. This was probably a “remainder” copy, for Newby frequently bought sheets of books that had not sold when originally published, and issued them at a cheaper price wholly or partially over his imprint.
1849
REDBURN: His First Voyage. Being the sailor boy confessions and reminiscences of the son of a gentleman in the Merchant Service. By Herman Melville, Author of Typee, Mardi. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. 1849. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. (420). The numbering of pages is very erratic. Pp. (1)-(6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears dedication; p. (10) is blank; pp. (11)-(17) are occupied by List of Contents paged (v)-xi; p. (12) is blank; pp. (13) to 390 are so paged; pp. (391)-(394) are unpaged and occupied by advertisements of other works by Melville; pp. (395)-(406) form a publishers' list, dated October, 1849, and paged (1) to 14; pp. (407) and (408) are occupied by publishers' advertisements, undated, but paged (1) and 2; pp. (409)-(412) are blank; pp. (413) and (414) are pasted down to inside back end-paper. No printed half-title. Purple-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
Note—Copies of the first edition are found with fewer advertisement pages at the end. These may well, in view of the irregular nature of American bookmaking at that period, be contemporary in issue with those more extensively furnished, but the collector will naturally prefer a copy as complete as possible.
1850
WHITE JACKET: Or The World in a Man of War. By Herman Melville. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1850. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. vi + 322.
Vol. II. pp. iv + 315 + (1).
No half-titles. Pale blue cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers, printed with publisher's advertisements.