Lowering the Bar has a copy of Herman Meville’s publishing contract for Moby-Dick, made 161 years ago between Harper and Brothers of the city of New York, Publishers and Melville. Melville got 50% of the profits (which seems fishy to me, given that the publisher has near-total leeway in accounting for its expenses-before-profit on the book), which apparently amounted to $556.37 (~$16K in inflation adjusted 2012 dollars).
HarperCollins posted this on October 18, which was the 161st anniversary of that certain work entitled “The Whale” but commonly known as “Moby Dick.” The contract provided that the said Herman Melville would get half the net profits from the sale of said book in the United States for the next seven years, although once the publisher had recovered the cost of the plates used to print it, Melville could have the terms changed so he would get a “sum certain” for each copy sold.
There She Blows! ‘Tis the Contract for Moby Dick!