MELVILLE, HERMAN. White-Jacket; or the World in a Man-of-War. New York: Harper 1850. 2 vols., 8vo, original printed buff wrappers, uncut, a 3 3/4-inch split along rear outer joint of Part 1, a 1-inch split at bottom of rear outer joint of Part 2, some slight spine wear, small (mainly marginal) closed tear in pp. 433-434 of Part 2 touching a few words; half morocco slipcase (worn). FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, FIRST FORM OF THE WRAPPERS. BAL 13662. A very good copy of one of the great Melville rarities: the only copy of White-Jacket in the original wrappers to appear at auction, according to ABPC, was in the Katharine de B. Parsons sale (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 6 October 1976, lot 143). Richard Colles Johnson, "An Attempt at a Union List of Editions of Melville, 1846-91," in The Book Collector, Autumn 1970, p. 344, locates five copies (the printing and wrapper form not given): University of Indiana, Harvard, New York Public Library, Rutgers, and University of Virginia. BAL (1973) locates a copy of the first printing at Virginia, and three copies of the second printing: Virginia, Indiana, and NYPL. (2)