2 volumes in one, 8vo. Half-titles; frontispiece map before part I; 4pp. publisher's advertisements (of 6) paginated [v]-viii at end [see BAL: "in some copies the leaf (pp. ix-x) is not present"]. (Some spotting and mostly marginal dampstaining.) Publisher's brown cloth blind-stamped cloth, spine gilt-lettered "Library of American Books" (wear to corners, minor losses to spine ends, some staining); folding case. Provenance: Alfred L. Tyler (signature, Cambridge, September 1852). 

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF THE AUTHOR’S FIRST BOOK, preceded by a London edition of the same year. Melville based his first work on the month he spent living among the people in the Marquesas, where he found himself after deserting the whaling ship Achsunet in 1841. Typee was Melville's most popular work during his lifetime.  BAL 13653 (Binding Variant A, Cloth [no priority]).