Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 Oct 2026.
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Billy Budd was first published in London, not America. Raymond Weaver transcribed it from Melville's papers and it appeared in 1924 as Billy Budd, Foretopman in volume XIII (Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces) of Constable's Standard Edition of The Works of Herman Melville, a sixteen-volume set issued 1922 to 1924 and limited to 750 sets. The volume has a limitation statement on a preliminary leaf and the imprint Constable and Company Ltd, London, Bombay, Sydney, 1924, with the printer T. and A. Constable at the University Press, Edinburgh. Sets are in the publisher's blue cloth. Volume XIII also holds the first book appearances of several shorter pieces, among them Daniel Orme, Jack Gentian, The Two Temples and Under the Rose. It is found in complete sets and singly. Weaver's revised 1928 text and John Lehmann's 1947 edition (our earlier lead) are later. References: BAL 13680 (set), BAL 13682 (Billy Budd).
We have not yet confirmed the issue points that tell this first impression from later ones. Until we do, compare your copy's title page and copyright page with the publisher, place and year above: any later printing or edition statement means it is not this one.
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Constable and Company, London, in 1924, in hardback.
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
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Read the guide →6 min readBook condition grading uses a six-step trade scale: Fine, Near Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor. Collectors grade the …
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