Fine Press Melville

I am a huge Melville fan and have been casually looking for fine press examples of his work beyond the well-known publications of M-D. Listed below the ones of which I am aware, anything worth owning that I missed? I am familiar with the LEC/Heritage books including Typee, Omoo and short stories.

The Encantadas, Grabhorn Press (1940)
Billy Budd, Married Mettle Press (1987) - first saw this in the one-hit wonder post, which generated this one
Collected Poems, Arion Press (1995) - I own this one
Norfolk Isle and the Chola Widow, Nawakum Press (2013)

Not fine press, but Folio Society published an edition of some of his works entitled, The Complete Shorter Fiction. It is nicely done and I recommend it if you are a Melville fan.

>2 ultrarightist: Thanks - yes, I've seen the short story collection. Pretty rare to come up on the secondary market in decent condition but on my radar.

The Imprint Society did a letterpress Benito Cereno with Garrick Palmer wood engravings

>1 LBShoreBook: There are also two from Red Angel Press:

1. Rock Rodondo, from The Encantadas, still available at reasonable prices.

2. Cetology, excerpted from Moby Dock, quite hard to find.

I am not a Melville collector per se, but as a nature reader who loves the works of both Nawakum and Red Angel, The Chola Widow and Cetology are two I’ve been searching for quite thoroughly, along with Billy Budd mainly due to the unique binding, but also because I’ve yet to read it and would enjoy doing so in such a fine edition.

>4 jsg1976: Is this the one? An upcoming auction in the UK.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/adampartridge/catalogue-id...

>6 paulm16: no, that appears to be the nonesuch press version. Here’s one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Benito-Cereno-Imprint-Society-Herman-Melville-signed-il...

>1 LBShoreBook:

1. Piazza Tales, Elf Publishers, 1929.

2. Bartleby the Scrivener, Indulgence Press, 1995. This one is a jewel.

https://booksandvines.com/2014/08/11/bartleby-the-scrivener-a-story-of-wall-stre...

A little more obscure. Bartleby: The Scrivener by Pittsburgh Bibliophiles.

It's a nice edition, somewhere between Folio Society and Limited Editions Club.

>3 LBShoreBook: I sent you a PM regarding the FS Melville fiction collection.

I believe the Princeton University Press did a few limited-run Melvilles on handmade paper in the 1920s, if that counts as 'fine press'

Not technically Melville perhaps but delightful nonetheless is Cetus by the Melville Press

http://www.thewholebookexperience.com/2012/02/21/cetus-the-whale-published-by-th...

Thanks all, some great suggestions in here. The hunt continues ....

Also a fan of Melville, and the one that posted the One Hit Wonder. The only fine press edition I know of besides those already mentioned is ‘The Lightning-Rod Man’ from Daedalus Press.
I have a copy myself and would recommend it. Interesting binding and woodcuts by Michael McCurdy are my favorite features.

Oh yeah, and there was also Claire Illouz' The Whiteness. Definitely on the "book arts" side but I was really struck by this work at CODEX, and one of the few book art temptations I have strongly felt at the show. Reading the portion of the text she printed without ink was really cool. And obviously might be really enjoyable to those who like their letterpress to have a lot of "bite."

She is also an amazing artist and wonderful person to talk to about books and art and light and the effect of Whiteness on Captain Ahab.

>10 BorisG: I responded to your message.

While not a letterpress edition, Black Letter Press has put out a limited Melville volume - Timoleon & Other Ventures in Minor Verse (250 copies). It's inspired by the 1891 Caxton Press edition issued in a run of 25 copies.

https://www.blackletter-press.com/product-page/timoleon-other-ventures-in-minor-...

I have a number of their volumes and they are quite lovely, particularly the grimoires. Emblemata is probably my favorite release of theirs so far.

Here is a very nice piece of Melville Ephemera... particularly relevant to our community of bibliophiles

https://thornwillow.com/an-imposition-of-whales

They did it for an exhibition at the Bodleian Library and distributed it early on through the Dispatch... The large format broadside presents the section in Moby Dick in which Melville compares whales to books... Folio Whale... Quarto Whale... Octavo Whale etc.

Garrick Palmer has done wood engravings for Benito Cereno twice - for the Imprint Society, and for the Folio Society Three Tales which also includes Bartleby and Billy Budd.

It was only mentioned briefly in passing by >7 jsg1976:, so I'll add that The Nonesuch Pres published a 1926 limited edition of Benito Cereno with pochoir illustrations by E. McKnight Kauffer. It could be worth a look. Kauffer has, as I understand it, become quite fashionable these days (his Nonsuch Don Quixote seems to be shooting up in price).

I am personally torn between the Nonesuch and Imprint Society editions. I find Palmer's engravings quite captivating.

I'm a little bewildered that I somehow forgot about the great edition of Bartleby the Scrivenor by Indulgence Press:

http://www.thewholebookexperience.com/2018/10/18/bartleby-the-scrivenor-publishe...

Apparently "I prefer not to" remember...

>20 ubiquitousuk:
I love Palmer’s engravings for the Folio Society edition of Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1994).

>21 jveezer:
No harm done — it was mentioned in >8 dlphcoracl:

>1 LBShoreBook: There's an edition of Melville's poem Batavia by the Halcyon Press (Maastricht, 1930).

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30258153667&cm_sp=snippet-...

Here is a copy of Bartleby that I’ve never seen before. Kallemeyn Press, 1989.

There is the Kraken Edition of Pierre, or, The Ambiguities, I'm not sure has been mentioned. Not FP, but a very lovely volume including foil embossed spine and front cover under the dust cover (which I would dispose of). Harper Collins 1995, 30 colour illustrations by Maurice Sendak. There is a dedication by Sendak to his 'Melville-loving brother'. The text is described as a reconstruction and there is a detailed introduction and notes on the text production. There is one for $4 on amazon, an insane bargain
https://www.amazon.com/Pierre-Ambiguities-Kraken-Herman-Melville/dp/0061180092

>26 diveteamzissou: It's $17.50 now. Hmmmm.