302

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1866.
First edition, octavo; with "hundred" misspelled on the copyright notice; bound in blue publisher's cloth over beveled boards, spine gilt-lettered, brown coated endpapers, double flyleaves as called for (lightly toned, occasional minor spots; front hinge cracked, minor tear to front free endpaper and first flyleaf, spine sunned, stain to lower board, corners just exposed); 7 3/8 x 4 ¾ in.

Melville's first collection of poetry, written in response to the American Civil War. Unfortunately for the author, the book was a commercial failure and forced him to seek work as a customs inspector in New York City. Battle-Pieces languished in obscurity until the late 20th-century when it was finally recognized as a powerful contribution to Civil War battle poetry, on par with similar work by Whitman. 

BAL 13673.

Provenance: Walter Ralph Steiner (1870-1942), house medical officer at John Hopkins Hospital in 1899 (ex-libris bookplate to front pastedown). 

From the collection of Joseph V. Ridgely, Professor Emeritus of English at Columbia University.

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