Typee

Lot 113
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 5 292
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 967686
Lot 113 | Typee
Estimate value
$ 2 500 – 3 500
Typee

Herman Melville, 1846

MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Narrative of a Four Months’ Residence Among the Natives of a Valley of The Marquesas Islands; or a Peep at Polynesian Life. London: John Murray, 1846.



First edition of Melville's first book, the most popular during his lifetime. A fine copy. Melville returned from his adventures in the South Seas in October 1844 and wrote Typee the following spring. Typee is the title under which this book was published in America one month after the present edition and by which it is now best known. It was based on Melville's desertion of the whaling ship Acushnet in 1842 and subsequent adventures through the Marquesas Islands with Richard Tobias Greene, who would inspire the main character Toby. Harper's, much to their later regret, initially rejected Typee on the grounds that it was too incredible to be believed as an autobiographical tale. Second issue, BAL binder's variant B. BAL 13652.



Octavo. Half title, map, 16 pp. of ads at rear dated March 1846. Original red cloth, spine gilt (minor wear to extremities and staining to endpapers); modern clamshell box. Provenance: Dorfold (bookplate).

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