Two Years Before the Mast by DANA, Richard Henry, Jr - 1841: A Personal Narrative of Life At Sea

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1841. London: Bradbury and Evans, [N.d., ca. 1841].

Rare English edition. Small quarto. 124 pp. Printed in double columns like the first English edition, published by Moxon but this copy is on better quality paper. Advertisement dated Aug. 1, 1841, Dana's Birthday. Only 1 copy came up at auction that was a presentation copy in unbound sheets. This copy does not have an imprint on verso of title as first English, but it had Bradbury and Evans imprint at end.

Therefore, it is possible(?) that this was a printer's proof copy or pirated copy. Bound in modern half calf over marbled boards, stamped in black on spine. Stamp of "Henry Samuel" on a few pages. Foxing to the first few leaves, otherwise fine.

"Dana, a man of great energy, wrote Two Years before the Mast and taught elocution at Harvard while attending classes there. His book, published in 1840, was an immediate success in the United States and in England, and it permanently influenced works about the sea, making their authors both more realistic about and also more cognizant of the common sailor's plight. About thirty books with titles echoing Dana's were published by 1860. The most notable literary beneficiary was Herman Melville, who in Chapter 24 of White-Jacket (1850) calls Two Years before the Mast "unmatchable" and whose Moby-Dick (1851) shows several traces of its influence. " (American National Biography).

HBS 66367.

$1,000.