# Is "White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War" by Herman Melville a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War by Herman Melville (Richard Bentley, 1850) is identified by: The true first edition is Richard Bentley's London printing, two volumes, issued in an edition of only 1,000 copies, bound in blue morocco-grained cloth blind-stamped with a square-rigged ship on the upper cover and an anchor on the lower cover, spines lettered in gilt, with yellow endpapers and pastedowns carrying publisher's advertisements. London (Bentley, published either 23 January or 1 February 1850, sources differ) precedes the New York Harper & Brothers edition of 21 March 1850, giving the English edition bibliographic priority.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first edition is Richard Bentley's London printing, two volumes, issued in an edition of only 1,000 copies, bound in blue morocco-grained cloth blind-stamped with a square-rigged ship on the upper cover and an anchor on the lower cover, spines lettered in gilt, with yellow endpapers and pastedowns carrying publisher's advertisements
- It collates iv, [2], 322; iv, 315, [1] pages
- The Harper & Brothers New York edition followed about two months later in a much larger printing of 4,524 copies
- Publisher imprint reads Richard Bentley
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Herman Melville |
| Publisher | Richard Bentley |
| Year | 1850 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first edition is Richard Bentley's London printing, two volumes, issued in an edition of only 1,000 copies, bound in blue… |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The true first edition is Richard Bentley's London printing, two volumes, issued in an edition of only 1,000 copies, bound in blue morocco-grained cloth blind-stamped with a square-rigged ship on the upper cover and an anchor on the lower cover, spines lettered in gilt, with yellow endpapers and pastedowns carrying publisher's advertisements. It collates iv, [2], 322; iv, 315, [1] pages. The Harper & Brothers New York edition followed about two months later in a much larger printing of 4,524 copies.

## Is this the true first?
London (Bentley, published either 23 January or 1 February 1850, sources differ) precedes the New York Harper & Brothers edition of 21 March 1850, giving the English edition bibliographic priority.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Because sales of the Bentley printing were sluggish (under 400 copies sold by 1852), the publisher reissued unsold sheets under a cancel title page dated 1853, rebound in uniform red cloth; copies with this 1853 title page and red cloth are a later remainder issue, not the true first, which has the original blue blind-stamped cloth.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War* by Herman Melville a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/white-jacket-or-the-world-in-a-man-of-war
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.