OMOO: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1847. 16 pp undated ads (in addition to the 9 pp integral "Publishers' Advertisement" ads for TYPEE, paginated [xv]-xxiii). Original blind-stamped grey-green cloth with front cover gilt vignette and with gilt-decorated spine.
First American Edition, issued about a week or two after Murray's edition in London. This was Melville's second book, preceded only by (and written as a sequel to) TYPEE of the year before. As with several other Melville novels, the basis for this tale was his long voyage and intermittent adventures of 1841-1844: he started off on a whaling ship (MOBY DICK), but he and a companion jumped ship in the Marquesas (TYPEE and MARDI); from the natives who were holding him captive there he escaped on an Australian ship -- from which he in turn deserted in Tahiti (OMOO); ultimately he got from Tahiti back to Honolulu on another whaler, and then back to Boston on an American man-o'-war (WHITE-JACKET). "Having completed his education in what he later termed the only Harvard and Yale that were open to him, he returned home to begin fashioning novels from his experiences..."[(OCAL]
Opposite the black-and-red-printed title page is the frontispiece map of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. OMOO was issued by Harper both in wrappers and in any of nine styles of cloth (without priority). This one is in the so-called "green TB" cloth, and has the original (intact) marbled endpapers. This is a near-fine copy (a trace of wear at the spine ends and one mark on the front cover; as usual there is minor foxing on the leaves within). OMOO has become scarce in fine condition in its original state. Blanck 13656. Housed in a handsome clamshell case with green morocco spine and separate black leather labels. Provenance: affixed to the front paste-down is the card of Horace K. Flint (born 1821 in St. Johnsbury VT and married in VT 1849; emigrated first to Racine WI, and just after the Civil War to Vineland NJ, where he was a newspaper publisher around 1880). Item #15321
Price: $2,750.00