First American edition of one of the most important American novels of the 19th century. This edition follows the English edition ("The Whale") by a month and contains thirty-five passages and the "Epilogue" omitted in London. First binding state, in the publisher's brown “Type A” cloth, covers stamped in blind with heavy rule frame and publisher's circular device at center (front and back). “[Melville's] great book, Moby Dick, was a complete practical failure, misunderstood by the critics and ignored by the public; and in 1853 the Harpers' fire destroyed the plates of all of his books and most of the copies remaining in stock [only about sixty copies survived the fire]...Melville's permanent fame must always rest on the great prose epic of Moby Dick, a book that has no equal in American literature for variety and splendor of style and for depth of feeling” (DAB). This copy has the two blank flyleaves at rear, but only one at front - the other was apparently excised when the front endpaper was replaced. BAL 13664; Grolier, 100 American, 60; Sadleir, Excursions in Victorian Bibliography, p. 339.