About this book

Herman Melville, Mariner and Mystic

Raymond M. Weaver

curled like the horse hair breaking out of old upholstered chairs, firm and wiry to the grasp, and squarely chopped. “Sad it is that he felt his grandchildren would turn against him as they grew older. He used to forebode as much. As it is, I have nothing but a remembrance of glorious fun, mixed with a childish awe, as of some one who knew far and strange things.” As the last meed of glory, Melville received this flattering letter: “12 Lucknow Terrace, “HALIFAX, N. S. Nov. 21, 1889. “DEAR SIR: “Although a stranger, I take the liberty of addressing you on the ground of my ardent admiration for your works. For a number of years I have read and reread _Moby-Dick_ with increasing pleasure in every perusal: and with this study, the conviction has grown up that the unique merits of that book have never received due recognition. I have been a student for ten years and have dabbled in literature more or less myself. And now I find myself in a position which enables me to give myself to literature as a life-work. I am anxious to set the merits of your books before the public and to that end, I beg the honour of corresponding with you. It would be of great assistance to me, if I could gather some particulars of your life and _literary methods_ from you, other than given in such books as Duyckinck’s dictionary. In the matter of style, apart from the matter altogether I consider your books, especially the earlier ones, the most thoroughly New World product in all American literature. “Hoping that I am not asking too much, I remain, “Yours most respectfully, “ARCHD. MACMEEHAN, PH.D. “Munro Professor of English at Dalhousie University.” Melville replied: “104 E. 26th St. “DEAR SIR: “I beg you to overlook my delay in acknowledging yours of the 12th ult. It was unavoidable. “Your note gave me pleasure, as how should it not, written in such a spirit. “But you do not know, perhaps, that I have entered my 8th decade. After 20 years nearly, as an outdoor custom house officer, I have lately come into possession of unobstructed leisure, but only just as, in the course of nature, my vigour sensibly declines. What little of it is left I husband for certain matters as yet incomplete, and which indeed may never be completed. “I appreciate, quite as much as you would have me, your friendly good will and shrink from any appearance to the contrary. “Trusting that you will take all this, & what it implies, in the same spirit that prompts it, I am, “Very truly yours, “HERMAN MELVILLE. “_To_ “_Professor MacMeehan_, “_Dec. 5, ’89._” Melville was using his “unobstructed leisure” in a return to the writing of prose. Ten prose sketches and a novel were the result. But the result is not distinguished. The novel, _Billy Budd_, is built around the character of Jack Chase, the “Handsome Sailor.” In the character of Billy Budd, Melville attempts to portray the native purity and nobility of the uncorrupted man. Melville spends elaborate pains in analysing “the mystery of iniquity,” and in celebrating by contrast the god-like beauty of body and spirit of his hero. Billy Budd, by his heroic guilelessness is, like an angel of vengeance, precipitated into manslaughter; and for his very righteousness he is hanged. _Billy Budd_, finished within a few months before the end of Melville’s life, would seem to teach that though the wages of sin is death, that sinners and saints alike toil for a common hire. In _Billy Budd_ the orphic sententiousness is gone, it is true. But gone also is the brisk lucidity, the sparkle, the verve. Only the disillusion abided with him to the last. Melville died at 104 East 26th Street, New York, on Monday, September 28, 1891. His funeral was attended by his wife and his two daughters--all of his immediate family that survived him--and a meagre scattering of relatives and family friends. The man who had created Moby-Dick died an obscure and elderly private citizen. He had in early manhood prayed that if indeed his soul missed its haven, that his might, at least, be an utter wreck. “All Fame is patronage,” he had once written; “let me be infamous.” But as if in contempt even for this preference, he had, during the last half of his life, cruised off and away upon boundless and uncharted waters; and in the end he sank down into death, without a ripple of renown. “Oh, what quenchless feud is this, that Time hath with the sons of Men!” BIBLIOGRAPHY Herman Melville’s Sea Tales. 4 Volumes. Edited by Arthur Stedman. _New York_, 1892, 1896; _Boston_, 1900, 1910, 1919. Typee (with a biographical and critical introduction by the editor). Omoo. Moby-Dick. White-Jacket. Typee: a Peep at Polynesian Life. During a Four Months’ Residence in a Valley of the Marquesas.... _New York_, 1846. A Four Months’ Residence among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas Islands; or, a Peep at Polynesian Life.... _London_, 1846, 1847, 1855, 1861. Typee: a Peep at Polynesian Life.... Revised edition, with a Sequel, The Story of Toby.... _New York_, 1846, 1847, 1849, 1855, 1857, 1865, 1871. _London_, 1892, 1893 (ed. H. S. Salt), 1898, 1899. _Boston_, 1902 (ed. William P. Trent). _London_, 1903 (ed. William P. Trent). _London and New York_, 1904 (ed. W. Clark Russell); 1907 (ed. Ernest Rhys). _London_ 1910; another edition 1910 (ed. W. Clark Russell). _New York_, 1911 (ed. W. Clark Russell); 1920 (ed. A. L. Sterling). _New York and London_, 1921 (ed. Ernest Rhys). Translated into German by R. Garrique, _Leipzig_, 1846; into Dutch, _Haarlem_, 1847. Omoo: a Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas.... _New York_, 1847 (five editions the same year). _London_, 1847, 1849. _New York and London_, 1855. _London_, 1861. _New York_, 1863, 1868. _London_, 1892, 1893 (ed. H. S. Salt). _London and New York_, 1904 (ed. W. Clark Russell); 1908 (ed. Ernest Rhys); 1911 (ed. W. Clark Russell); 1921 (ed. Ernest Rhys). Translated into German by F. Gerstäcker, _Leipzig_, 1847. Mardi: and a Voyage Thither.... _New York_, 1849 (2 volumes). _London_, 1849 (3 volumes). _New York_, 1855, 1864. Redburn: His First Voyage. Being the Sailor-Boy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-Gentleman, in the Merchant Service.... _New York_, 1849. _London_, 1849 (2 volumes). _New York_, 1855, 1863. Translated into German by L. Marezoll, _Grimma_, 1850. White-Jacket: or, The World in a Man-of-War.... _New York_, 1850. _London_, 1850 (2 volumes). _New York and London_, 1855. _London_, 1892, 1893, 1901. Moby-Dick; or, the Whale.... _New York_, 1851. The Whale.... _London_, 1851, 1853 (3 volumes). Moby-Dick; or, the Whale.... _New York_, 1863. _London_, 1901 (ed. L. Becke). _London and New York_, 1907 (ed. Ernest Rhys). _London_, 1912; 1920 (ed. Violet Maynell). _London and New York_, 1921 (ed. Ernest Rhys). The editions since 1892 have borne the title Moby-Dick; (or) the (Great) White Whale. Pierre: or The Ambiguities.... _New York_, 1852, 1855. Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile.... _New York_, 1855 (three editions in the same year). _London_, 1855, 1861. (The book appeared serially in _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine_, July, 1854-March, 1855. It was pirated at _Philadelphia_, n. d. (entered 1865), as The Refugee, with the original dedication and table of contents omitted). The Piazza Tales.... _New York_, 1856. _London_, 1856. (Contains: The Piazza; Bartleby; Benito Cereno; The Lightning-Rod Man; The Encantadas; The Bell-Tower). The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade.... _New York_, 1857. _London_, 1857. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.... _New York_, 1866. Clarel: a Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land.... _New York_, 1878. John Marr and Other Sailors.... _New York_, 1888. (Privately printed). Timoleon, etc. _New York_, 1891. (Privately printed). CONTRIBUTIONS TO MAGAZINES, ETC. Fragments from a Writing Desk. _The Democratic Press and Lansingburgh Advertiser_, 4 May; 18 May; 1849. Hawthorne and His Mosses, By a Virginian Spending a July in Vermont. _Literary World._ 17 Aug.; 24 Aug.; 1850. The Town-Ho’s Story. (Ch. 54 of Moby-Dick.) _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ Oct., 1851. A Memorial to James Fenimore Cooper. Discourses and tributes by Bryant, Bancroft, Irving, Melville, etc., etc. _New York_, 1852. Bartleby, the Scrivener. A story of Wall-Street. _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ Nov.-Dec., 1853. Cock-a-Doodle-Doo! or, The Crowing of the Cock of Benentano. _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ Dec., 1853. The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles, by Salvator R. Tarnmoor. _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ March-May, 1854. The Lightning-Rod Man. _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ Aug., 1854. Poor Man’s Pudding and Rich Man’s Crumbs. _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ June, 1854. Happy Failure. A Story of the River Hudson. _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ July, 1854. The Fiddler. _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ Sept., 1854. Paradise of Bachelors and Tartarus of Maids. _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ April, 1855. The Bell-Tower. _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ Aug., 1855. Benito Cereno. _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ Oct.-Dec., 1855. Jimmy Rose. _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ Nov., 1855. The ’Gees. _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ March, 1856. I and My Chimney. _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ March, 1856. The Apple-Tree Table: or, Original Spiritual Manifestations. _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ May, 1856. The March to the Sea (poem). _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ Feb., 1856. The Cumberland (poem). _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ March, 1866. Philip (poem). _Putnam’s Monthly Magazine._ April, 1866. Chattanooga (poem). _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ June, 1866. Gettysburg: July, 1863 (poem). _Harper’s New Monthly Magazine._ July, 1866. The History of Pittsfield, Mass., Compiled and written, under the general direction of a committee, by J. E. A. Smith, Pittsfield, 1876. (The account of Major Thomas Melville, pp. 399-400, was written by Melville.) INDEX OF NAMES Abbott, Willis J., 84, 135, 144. Abernethy, John, 40. _Acushnet, The_, 127, 129, 130, 133, 134, 145, 147, 151, 152, 154, 160, 162, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 191, 193, 194, 195, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 216. Adams, C. F., 78. Adler, Dr., 285, 287, 288, 289, 291, 292, 293, 294, 298. Ahab, Captain, 25, 26, 32, 133, 332. Akenside, Dr. Mark, 57, 61, 114. Albany, 34, 35, 36, 56, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 112, 113, 132, 205, 251, 252, 271. Albany Academy, 70, 71, 121. Alcott, Amos Bronson, 132. Ames, Nathaniel, 79, 87. Amherst, 257. Angew, Mary, 304. Annatoo, 275. Arnold, Matthew, 365. Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 44, 79. Arrowhead, 47, 306, 309, 310, 311, 346, 351, 352, 376. _Artémise, The_, 192, 193. Balboa, 170, 373. Banks, Sir Joseph, 178, 206. Barbauld, Mrs., 57, 61, 126. Barrie, Sir James, 22, 27. _Battle Pieces_, 358, 365. “Beauty,” 217. Beck, Dr. T. Romeyn, 70. Becke, Louis, 24. Beecher, Henry Ward, 305. Behn, Aphra, 203. Bennett, F. D., 137. Bentley, Richard, 273, 292, 293, 294, 299, 300, 301, 302, 311. Berkshires, 23, 169, 305, 312. Besant, Walter, 80, 177. Bildad, 27, 32, 154, 155, 157. Bildad, Aunt Charity, 144. Billson, James, 360. _Billy Budd_, 239, 381. Blake, William, 74. Bligh, Captain, 179, 181. Bob, Captain, 220, 221. Bolton, Harry, 106, 107. Boomer, Captain, 27. Borabolla, 278.