Typee

First published in 1846, this narrative follows Tommo, a young American sailor who, with his shipmate Toby, jumps a whaleship in the Marquesas and takes refuge in the Typee valley. They live among islanders whom rumor has called cannibals, eat breadfruit and poi, watch tattooing and festival, and try to read whether hospitality hides a threat. Toby disappears on a trip for medicine. Tommo, lame and watched, becomes attached to Fayaway and to the household of the chief Mehevi while still planning escape. The book mixes adventure, ethnography, and a critique of mission and naval power in the South Seas. It is a first-person sojourn, not a treatise on Polynesia.

Bound in full yellow cloth with a repeat pattern in green by John Buckland-Wright. Variant state with green leather spine label. White dust-jacket printed in green and black.