[Rarebooks] FS: Source book for MOBY DICK

[Charles Agvent]

 From our newly posted catalog: HAWTHORNE, HOLMES, & MELVILLE.  All 50 
items can be seen on our home page:  http://www.charlesagvent.com


[MELVILLE, Herman] (HOLMES, Oliver Wendell; IRVING, Washington; 
LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth; LOWELL, James Russell; et. al.). THE 
KNICKERBOCKER, OR, NEW-YORK MONTHLY MAGAZINE. VOL. XIII, JANUARY - JUNE, 
1839. New York: Clark and Edson, 1839. First Edition. Bound in half 
brown calf with matching corners and marbled boards with gilt ruling and 
a maroon, gilt-lettered morocco label on the spine. Contains the first 
publication of several items including Washington Irving's "Sleepy 
Hollow" and "Mocha Dick: or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from 
Manuscript Journal" by Jeremiah Reynolds, considered by scholars to be 
the origin of the name of Melville's whale. Illustrated with three 
engravings and a map of Brooklyn. Occasional spotting; mild rubbing to 
the covers. Very Good or better.

Mocha Dick: or The White Whale of the Pacific recounted the capture of a 
giant white sperm whale that had become infamous among whalers for its 
violent attacks on ships and their crews. The meaning of the name itself 
is quite simple: the whale was often sighted in the vicinity of the 
island of Mocha, and "Dick" was merely a generic name like "Jack" or 
"Tom" -- names of other deadly whales cited by Melville in Chapter 45 of 
Moby-Dick:
"But not only did each of these famous whales enjoy great individual 
celebrity -- nay, you may call it an ocean-wide renown; not only was he 
famous in life and now is immortal in forecastle stories after death, 
but he was admitted into all the rights, privileges, and distinctions of 
a name; had as much a name indeed as Cambyses or Caesar. Was it not so, 
O Timor Jack! thou famed leviathan, scarred like an iceberg, who so long 
did'st lurk in the Oriental straits of that name, whose spout was oft 
seen from the palmy beach of Ombay? Was it not so, O New Zealand Tom! 
thou terror of all cruisers that crossed their wakes in the vicinity of 
the Tattoo Land? Was it not so, O Morquan! King of Japan, whose lofty 
jet they say at times assumed the semblance of a snow-white cross 
against the sky? Was it not so, O Don Miguel! thou Chilian whale, marked 
like an old tortoise with mystic hieroglyphics upon the back! In plain 
prose, here are four whales as well known to the students of Cetacean 
History as Marius or Sylla to the classic scholar."

The transformation of "Mocha" to "Moby," however, presents a greater 
mystery. Melville himself never explained the origin of the latter word. 
Did he invent it on a whim and like the way it sounded? Or is it some 
strange piece of hermetic Melvillean arcana? The answer will probably 
never be known, but a number of scholars have amused themselves by 
taking shots at it. Following as an example is a conjecture put forth by 
Harold Beaver in his "Commentary" in the Penguin Classics edition of 
MOBY-DICK (1972):
"By July 1846 even the Knickerbocker Magazine had forgotten its earlier 
version [of Reynold's article], reminding its readers of 'the sketch of 
'Mocha Dick, of the Pacific,' published in the Knickerbocker many years 
ago. That account may well have led Melville to look up the earlier 
issue, in the very month he rediscovered his lost buddy of the Acushnet 
and fellow deserter on the Marquesas, Richard Tobias Greene, and began 
'The Story of Toby' [the sequel to Typee]. May not 'Toby Dick' then have 
elided with 'Mocha Dick' to form that one euphonious compound, 'Moby 
Dick?'"
  		$500.00
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