MAYO, W[illiam] S[tarbuck]

Kaloolah, or, Journeyings to the Djébel Kumri: An Autobiography of Jonathan Romer

London: George Routledge & Co., 1850. First U.K. Edition. Small octavo (17cm.); publisher's brown blind-embossed cloth, gilt-lettered spine, yellow glazed endpapers; viii,296pp. Boards scuffed and corners bumped, spine a bit cocked, contemporary ownership signatures in pen, ink, and rubberstamp all redacted in contemporary black ink on front free endpaper, dark dampstain at bottom fore-edge corner of later leaves, else a Very Good, still quite brilliant copy.

Oft-reprinted novel combining adventure and whaling story with zoological descriptions and a "phantasmagorical view of life in Northern Africa" (Harold Bloom, "Herman Melville" (2009), p. 89), considered by some academics as a sourcebook for Herman Melville's "Pierre." See Wright I 1852-5 for earlier American editions.

Price: $75.00

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