Mardi, the Bradley Martin copy

Los 119
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Verkauft
$ 11 340
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
VeranstaltungsortVereinigten Staaten, New York
Archiv
Die Auktion ist abgeschlossen. Es können keine Gebote mehr abgegeben werden.
Archive
ID 967663
Los 119 | Mardi, the Bradley Martin copy
Schätzwert
$ 2 000 – 3 000
Mardi, the Bradley Martin copy

Herman Melville, 1849

MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Mardi: and A Voyage Thither. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1849.



The Bradley Martin copy. A crisp, clean copy of the first American edition. Melville would describe Mardi in a 25 March 1848 letter to his English publisher John Murray, explaining his decision to write a romance rather than provide "documentary evidence" of his time at sea: "My object in now writing you — I should have done so ere this — is to inform you of a change in my determinations. To be blunt: the work I shall next publish will in downright earnest [be] a 'Romance of Polynesian Adventure'— But why this? The truth is, Sir, that the reiterated reputation of being a romancer in disguise has at last pricked me into a resolution to show those who may take any interest in the matter, that a real romance of mine is no Typee or Omoo, & is made of different stuff altogether [...] My romance I assure you is no dishwater nor its model borrowed from the Circulating Library. It is something new I assure you, original if nothing more." Melville closes the letter by chastising Murray: "[Y]ou ask again for 'documentary evidence' of my having been in the South Seas [...] Bless my soul, Sir, will you Britons not credit than American can be a gentleman & have read the Waverly Novels, tho every digit may have been in the tar-bucket?" (Horth, Correspondence, p.105-107). BAL 136858.



Two volumes, octavo (187 x 119mm). 8 pp. of adverts at rear of vol. 2 (marginal tear to dedication leaf in vol. 1 where partially unopened). Original green blind-stamped cloth, yellow coated endpapers (a little faint spotting to cloth); modern slipcase. Provenance: Edward Taylor (bookplate to front pastedown) – H. Bradley Martin (bookplate to front fly leaf; his sale, Sotheby's New York, 30 & 31 January 1990, lot 2148).

Adresse der Versteigerung CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
Vereinigten Staaten
Vorschau
15.06.2023
Telefon +1 212 636 2000
Fax +1 212 636 4930
E-Mail
NutzungsbedingungenNutzungsbedingungen
Versand Postdienst
Kurierdienst
Selbstabholung
Zahlungsarten Banküberweisung
GeschäftszeitenGeschäftszeiten
Mo 09:30 – 17:00   
Di 09:30 – 17:00   
Mi 09:30 – 17:00   
Do 09:30 – 17:00   
Fr 09:30 – 17:00   
Sa geschlossen
So geschlossen

Mehr von Creator

The Piazza Tales
The Piazza Tales
$100
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
$100
Battle-Pieces
Battle-Pieces
$100
Israel Potter and Benito Cereno in Putnam's Monthly
Israel Potter and Benito Cereno in Putnam's Monthly
$3 000
Criticism on Art by William Hazlitt
Criticism on Art by William Hazlitt
$7 000
Typee, inscribed, the Bradley Martin copy
Typee, inscribed, the Bradley Martin copy
$80 000
Narrative of a Four Months' Residence Among the Natives, a family copy
Narrative of a Four Months' Residence Among the Natives, a family copy
$100
The Piazza Tales, inscribed by Allan Melville
The Piazza Tales, inscribed by Allan Melville
$3 500

Verwandte Begriffe

?>