Moby Dick: Rare Book of the Week
The Lakeside Press edition of Moby Dick
This week's Rare Book of the Week is the printer's sample of the first volume of Rockwell Kent's illustrated Lakeside Pressedition of Moby Dick which is at The Collected Library timed auction at Freeman's | Hindman.
The Lakeside Press first trade edition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, or The Whale (Chicago: The Lakeside Press, 1930. Vols. 1 and 2 (of 3) only, 4to) was printed on fine rag-paper, one of the four books produced by Lakeside for the 'Four American Books' series. Moby Dick - which features Kent's pen, brush, and ink drawings - was the only one to sell out completely, and put Chicago on the map as an important center of American book illustration.
As well as an illustrator, Kent (1882 – 1971) wrote numerous memoirs including various autobiographies, plus Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska, and Voyaging Southwards from the Strait of Magellan.
It comes in its original black cloth stamped in silver with beveled edges, all three volumes housed together in original aluminum slipcase, with The Lakeside Press Library bookplates, a limited edition of 1,000 copies. It has an estimate of $2,000 - $3,000. The auction closes March 18.
