MOBY DICK, OR THE WHALE; [with] MOBY DICK: A COMMENTARY.

Limited edition. Publisher's full black smooth-grain leather blocked in white and silver with a design after Rockwell Kent. Top edge silver. Grey ribbon page-marker. With 272 woodcut illustrations throughout the text by Rockwell Kent. The Commentary volume bound in black cloth with silver titles to the upper board and spine. Both volumes are housed together in the original black cloth solander case, with titles in silver to the spine. A fine copy, the binding square and tight, clean and bright inside and out. The solander case is structurally sound with just very minor rubbing and a couple of tiny marks. A lovely copy.

Issued in a limited edition of 1750 copies of which this example is numbered 43. The text of Melville's classic story was first published in 1851, and these illustrations first produced in 1930 and issued as a three volume limited Lakeside Press edition of 1,000 copies before being published as a one volume trade edition in the same year by Random House. This deluxe Folio Society edition follows the spelling and punctuation of the 1851 original (with minor emendations) and reproduces in entirety the superb Rockwell Kent illustrations of the Lakeside Press edition. The detailed commentary volume by Harold Beaver includes a biographical note and bibliography. Rockwell Kent's stark, dramatic visual take on Moby Dick brought the (then relatively obscure) classic American novel firmly into the 20th century and quickly reinvigorated interest in Melville's work; this illustrated edition is even now often hailed as the definitive Moby Dick.