CALL ME … SIGNOR FARINI

[Cover title:] The White Whale …

London, R. K. Burt & Co. … 1878.

8vo, pp. 16; small ink-stain to final page, but a good copy in the original pale yellow printed paper wrappers.

£225

Approximately:
US $279€269

Add to basket Make an enquiry

Added to your basket:
[Cover title:] The White Whale …

Checkout now

First edition, an account of the white Beluga whale by Henry Lee of the Royal Aquarium in Brighton, specifically of the first such whale successfully transported to England, exhibited for four days in 1877 before its death from pneumonia; and of four further whales transported the following year. The whales belonged to the Canadian showman, ‘the Great Farini’ aka William Leonard Hunt, and formed the cetaceous segment of his show at the Westminster Aquarium.

It may seem odd that there is no mention of Moby Dick (1851), but, quite apart from the book’s dismal failure in Melville’s lifetime, his ‘white whale’ was an albino sperm whale, not a Beluga.

You may also be interested in...

[MACKENZIE, Lieutenant-Colonel George, and others, defendants.]

The Trial, before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland, at the Instance of Daniel Ross, Woodsawer in Aberdeen; against Lieutenant-Colonel George Mackenzie, Captain Felix Bryan Macdonough, Serjeants Andrew Mackay & Alex. Sutherland, all of the late Regiment of Ross & Cromarty Rangers: for the Murder of John Ross, late Soldier in the Corps of Riflemen, in the Streets of Aberdeen, on Fourth of June, 1802.

Sole edition. This controversial trial was brought as a private prosecution after the Lord Advocate, Charles Hope, had decided not to prosecute any officers or soldiers for killing four peaceable inhabitants of Aberdeen after celebrations of the King’s birthday on 4 June 1802 had got out of control. Men and boys in Castle Street in high spirits were pelting each other with dirt, straw, and garbage, when Mackenzie and Mcdonough, who had been drinking with the magistrates and were rather intoxicated, walked back to their barracks and were pelted too. Soldiers from the Ross & Cromarty Rangers then joined in, apparently without orders. While soldiers and citizens jostled up and down Castle Street, Mcdonough attempted to calm the situation. Presently he ordered the soldiers to prime and load to intimidate the crowd, but then ordered them to withdraw to their barracks. Mackenzie meanwhile stayed in his quarters. Later the soldiers came out again, and on three occasions deliberately took aim and fired on the populace, although it was not clear whether any command to fire had been given. A serjeant was at the head of the group that shot John Ross, but he was not positively identified as one of the defendants.

Read more