Moby Dick by Herman Melville, 1937 Rockwell Kent Edition

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.Here we offer the art deco Rockwell Kent-illustrated Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, published by Random House, New York, in 1937, the edition responsible for bringing this mid-19th century novel out of obscurity and placing its author at the top of the pantheon of classic American lit.  This is the second, significantly redesigned version, this version taller, with a harpoon on the spine.  Included in the auction is a collection of Moby Dick-related ephemera, including collector's notes on the novel, a "How to Read Moby Dick" article, literary notes, and a modern reproduction of mid-19th century Moby Dick reviews and advertisements. For this edition, Random House replaced the dust jacket with a more modern and colorfully-illustrated jacket that was not designed by Kent and not nearly as striking as the original art deco jacket. Here, we include a special facsimile of the first dust jacket, but slightly reoriented to fit the taller book, which you can only get here, printed on polymer-coated heavyweight bond, a process that keeps the ink from being absorbed into the pulp, resulting in the most crisp and vivid appearance.Boards are lightly worn (please see pics.)  Intact endpages bear a period inscription. Very tight and square binding, very bright and crisp text.  Dust jacket comes wrapped in its own ph-neutral mylar sleeve and ready to slip into your collection. 822 pages; measures approximately 8 x 5.5-inches.This vintage classic will make a wonderful addition to your collection or a very special gift

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