Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

3 volumes, 4to. Numerous woodcut illustrations by Rockwell Kent. (Very light offsetting to text.) Original black cloth, titled and decorated in silver, top edges stained black, vols. 2 and 3 unopened; aluminum slipcase (light wear and uneven toning to case). 

LIMITED EDITION, one of 1000 copies, one of R. R. Donnelley and Sons' Lakeside Press "Four American Books" campaign. Of the four books produced for the series (also including Poe's Tales, Thoreau's Walden, and Dana's Two Years Before the Mast), Moby Dick was the only work to sell out completely. "The most lasting contribution of the undertaking, though, was Kent's Moby Dick. Still regarded as the definitive illustrated edition of this American Classic, it positioned Chicago as a major center in the history of American book illustration, design, and production" (Coventry, "Four American Books Campaign," Chicago by the Book, p.121). The Artist and the Book 130; Chicago by the Book 53. A VERY FINE AND PARTIALLY UNOPENED SET.