MOUNT CRAWFORD, VA. – A first edition to be printed in the United States of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick led bidders on a merry chase at Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates’ Summer Americana Auction on August 27-29. The unrestored edition was reeled in for $15,210, including buyer’s premium, by a trade buyer on the West Coast bidding on the phone. Published in 1851 by Harper & Brothers in New York City, the fresh-to-the-market volume had originally been in the private library of J. Mowton Saunders, an engineer in Baltimore in the 1860s-80s who also served on the Baltimore City Council and the executive committee of the Maryland Historical Society.

A more extensive sale recap will follow in a future issue.