Lot 236
  • 236

Melville, Herman

Estimate
3,000 - 4,000 USD
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Description

  • Autograph note signed ("Herman Melville")
  • paper, ink
1 trimmed ticket (4 x 2 1/4 in.; 102 x 56 mm). Light blue paper with brown ink, mounted on same-size card; three vertical folds, scattered stains, trimmed edges. Reading in full, "Please admit the bearer,” dated 31 January.    

Provenance

R.R. Auction, December 2014, lot 651 

Literature

Horth, Correspondence, p. 333

Catalogue Note

This pass was presumably issued for a lecture Melville delivered to the Mechanic Apprentices’ Library Association in Boston in 1859, this being the only lecture he is known to have given on the last day of January. Titled "The South Seas," it explored the author's experiences there, which had served as the inspiration for his first two books, Typee and Onoo.