Clarel by Herman Melville

Author:Herman Melville
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: test
Publisher: test
Published: 2010-08-27T03:00:00+00:00

Page 540

consented on the very strong representations of the publishers, to put his name on the title-page, for which I am very glad—and therefore he has changed his mind about having a dedication—“; that decided, appropriately, Melville inscribed Clarel to Uncle Peter, who had died in January. By this time, Lizzie told Kate, the entire manuscript was in type, and on June 3, 1876, after “a series of the most vexatious delays,” Clarel was published. The two-volume octavo sets were published at three dollars and bound in cloth of various colors; a variation of the “ensign” of Jerusalem described in 4.2 was stamped in gilt on the front covers—a Jerusalem cross, over palm leaves and under three crowns and a star. The title pages carried no reference to Melville’s other books, and the volumes contained no illustrations or advertisements. There was no English edition, but the Putnam edition was distributed in England. Since Melville had paid for the entire publication, including review copies and advertising, these circumstances doubtless expressed his wishes.

Melville offered his poem to a generally unconcerned public with the hope that it had ‘‘enough of original life to redeem it at least from vapidity,” as he phrased it in his heavy-handed author’s note to the first volume: “Be that as it may, I here dismiss the book—content beforehand with whatever future awaits it.” His sense of relief that it was done also comes through the inscription in the copy he gave to Elizabeth. Eight years after publication Melville reiterated his

39. As Mrs. Melville said in a letter the following day to Kate. Precisely what caused the delays is not known, but physical evidence in the published volumes indicates that the original production plan was for single-volume duodecimos instead of two-volume octavos and confirms that the dedication was a late addition; see the NOTE ON THE TEXT, pp. 678–79. The inscription in the copy Melville presented to his wife was dated June 6 (see RELATED DOCUMENTS, pp. 864–66); the date of copyright deposit was June 9.

40. See the illustration on p. 674 below and the discussion at 4.2.68–69.

41. The distributor was Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle. Putnam’s had printed only “a small edition,” according to Mrs. Melville’s reply in the New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art (October 5, 1901, pp. 706–7) to a request for information about Melville’s books. She commented that Clarel “was withdrawn from circulation by Mr. Melville on finding that it commanded but a very limited sale, being in strong contrast to his previous popular works.” See p. 659 below.

42. “This copy is specially presented to my wife, without whose assistance in manifold ways I hardly know how I could have got the book (under the circumstances) into shape, and finally through the press.” The inscription is reproduced below, p. 864.

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