Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street
”Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!”
THE EXCEEDINGLY RARE FIRST APPEARANCE IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS OF ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED SHORT STORIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE.
"'Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street' is one of Herman Melville's most highly acclaimed works of short fiction... [and] also one of the most celebrated short stories in American literature. After publishing seven novels between 1846 and 1852, including his magnum opus Moby-Dick (1851), Melville (1819–1891) turned to short fiction, writing 'Bartleby' and thirteen other stories and sketches between 1853 and 1856. First published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine in 1853, 'Bartleby' was subsequently published by Dix and Edwards of New York in 1856 in The Piazza Tales, a collection of six of Melville's stories” (Thomson Gale, American History Through Literature).
“Melville wrote ‘Bartleby’ at a time when his career seemed to be in ruins, and the story reflects his pessimism. The narrator, a successful Wall Street lawyer, hires a scrivener named Bartleby to copy legal documents. Though Bartleby is initially a hard worker, one day, when asked to proofread, he responds, ‘I would prefer not to.’ As time progresses, Bartleby increasingly ‘prefers not to’ do anything asked of him. Eventually he dies of self-neglect, refusing offers of help, while jailed for vagrancy” (Britannica).
As one of the most discussed and studied works of American Literature, "Bartleby” “has been the subject of some two hundred journal articles, dozens of book chapters, and several entire volumes” (Matthew Guillen, Reading American).
IN: Putnam’s Monthly, No. XI (November 1853) and XII (December 1853). New York: G.P. Putnam, 1853. Quarto, original wrappers; custom box. Wrappers with a little soiling and some chips to spines and one corner of December issue. Very light scattered foxing (mostly to margins). A clean, unrestored copy. A very rare survival in original wrappers and without any institutional stamps.
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