Editing Omoo (section)

==Publication history==
On December 18, 1846, Melville signed a contract with [[Harper Brothers]] for the publication of ''Omoo'', and on December 30, he offered the book to [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]], the British publisher of ''Typee''.<ref>Roper (1968), p. 329</ref> Some day in January publisher Evert Duyckinck asked Melville for permission to publish some pages of ''Omoo'' in the new magazine ''Literary World'', and on January 30 the title was registered in the Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.<ref>Roper (1968), p. 330</ref>

On February 1 proof sheets of the American edition were sent to London, where the customs house in Liverpool initially seized them as a piracy.<ref>Roper (1968), p. 331</ref> The sheets were released and on February 26 Murray proposed to pay £150 for the copyright of the book,<ref>Roper (1968), p. 332</ref> £50 more than he had offered for the previous book<ref>Roper (1968), p. 333</ref> Melville accepted this offer in a letter of March 31, explaining that "he did not know how to determine the 'precise pecuniary value' of an unpublished work."<ref>Roper (1968), p. 332</ref>

March 27 was the official date of the British publication. 4,000 copies of ''Omoo'' were printed, 2,500 paperbound copies in two parts, each priced at half a crown, and the rest as a single hardbound volume, priced at six shillings. At the request of the author, a map was engraved, as well as a Round-Robin diagram.<ref>Roper (1968), p. 333</ref>

Murray included both ''Typee'' and ''Omoo'' in his ''[[Home and Colonial Library]]'' which was marketed and sold as a collection throughout the British Empire. In it, Melville was listed together with other well-known writers, an event that turned out to be an important watershed for both his sales and reputation. "Over the decades Melville's presence in the library insured the fame of his first two books with two or three generations of English readers all around the world."<ref>Parker p. 510.</ref>

In the United States, the book was available on May 1, in the same formats as Murray issued them. The two paperbound volumes were priced at 50¢ each, and the single volume in a cloth casing cost $1.25. 5,500 copies were printed by July, 2,000 of which in paper, 1,800 in [[muslin]], and the rest remained in sheets.<ref>Roper (1968), p. 334</ref>

Variants in spelling and punctuation aside, the two editions differed at 79 points, most of which were single words.<ref>Roper (1968), p. 334</ref>