Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

This is a REVERSE-PRECEDENCE case: the London Bentley 'The Whale' (three volumes, 18 October 1851) PRECEDES the New York Harper 'Moby-Dick' (14 November 1851) by about four weeks and is the earliest by date. Bentley, however, set his text from Harper proof-sheets and — without Melville's knowledge — expurgated it and dropped the Epilogue, so the Harper edition is the first COMPLETE and textually fuller text (Epilogue plus roughly thirty-five restored/uncut passages). Collectors value both: 'The Whale' as the date-first (and far scarcer, at about 500 copies), 'Moby-Dick' as the first complete text.