James McHenry.
The Wilderness; or, Braddock’s Times. A tale of the West. [By James McHenry.] In two volumes. New-York: E. Bliss and E. White, 1823. —“The West” means the area that is now Pittsburgh.
Vol. I. —We have not been able to find this volume on line.
The
Wilderness; or, Braddock’s Times. A
tale of the west. [By James McHenry.] Two volumes
in one. Pittsburgh: M. P. Morse, 1848.
Another
copy. —Since this is known as the first
novel set entirely in the Pittsburgh region, it
seems natural that it was reprinted in Pittsburgh,
where the setting would give it a continuing
interest that otherwise would have waned after a
quarter-century from its original publication.
“Had the writer of the
volumes before us been pleased to call his book a
historical romance, the contents would have
vindicated the propriety of that title. That
portion of the early history of America, which he
has chosen for his theme, is related with
fidelity; whilst the difficulties and the dangers
by which the actors were surrounded, and the
heroism and virtue by which they were met and
overcome, together with many fictitious
embellishments, may be truly characterized as
abundantly interesting.” —The
Port Folio, November, 1823.
The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade. By Herman Melville. Authorised Edition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857. —This is one of the wildest rides in American literature, and here is a neatly-printed one-volume edition in a very good scan.
Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile. By Herman Melville. New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1855.
Another copy.
Moby-Dick; or, the Whale. By Herman Melville. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers. London: Richard Bentley. 1851. —A very good scan of the first edition from Duke University, including Melville's autograph.
Moby Dick; or, the Whale. By Herman Melville. Illustrated by I. W. Taber. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902. —Gorgeous illustrations (see the frontispiece above) in an edition published shortly after Melville's forgotten masterpiece was rediscovered. —Like most editions published shortly after the rediscovery of Moby-Dick, this one transposes the "Etymology" and "Extracts" at the beginning of the book to the back, which deprives them of their significance in setting the atmosphere for the drama to follow.
☛Although Moby-Dick was not a success, and in fact destroyed Melville’s literary career, it is certainly not true that all contemporary critics rejected it. “But we are now beginning to get acquainted with writers amongst the Americans who are really national—in the sense that American apples are national.… And from whom but an American could we have expected such a book as we had the other day in the Whale of Herman Melville? such a fresh daring book—wild, and yet true—with its quaint spiritual portraits looking ancient and also fresh, as though Puritanism had been kept fresh in the salt water over there, and were looking out living upon us once more. These writers one sees, at all events, have our old English virtue of pluck. They think what they please, and say what they think.” —James Hannay, in an introduction to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, 1852.
☛It may be of interest to students of Melville to read the short tale that inspired Melville's masterpiece: Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal. By J. N. Reynolds, Esq., in the Knickerbocker for May, 1839.
Pierre; or, the Ambiguities. By Herman Melville. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1852.