8vo (191 x 127 mm). 6pp. publisher’s advertisements at rear. (Spotting throughout.) Original drab brown cloth [BAL first binding, A cloth] blind-stamped with the publisher’s circular device at center within heavy rule frame on each cover, spine stamped and lettered in gilt, brown-orange coated endpapers, two flyleaves at front and three at end (some pale staining, small spot of cockling to upper cover, extreme ends and fore-corners a bit worn, hinges starting with stitching occasionally showing); morocco pull-off slipcase. Provenance: Joseph A. Smith (gift inscription on front pastedown and sub-title dated 1864; ownership signature on title-page, contents page and rear pastedown).

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, IN THE BAL FIRST BINDING (priority established), following the 3-volume English edition by a month and contains thirty-five passages not present in that edition. In Grolier’s One Hundred Influential American Books, Melville’s great novel can best be described as containing “the sounds and scents, the very flavor, of the maritime life of our whaling ancestors” and in Johnson’s High Spots a “masterpiece” after rising from semi-obscurity in the 20ᵗʰ century. BAL 13664; Grolier American 60; Johnson’s American First Editions, p. 247; Johnson, High Spots of American Literature p. 57.