![[Herman
Melville, 1885]](hmt.gif)
The Life and Works of Herman Melville
The Life and Works of Herman Melville is a publication dedicated to disseminating
information about Herman Melville on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Another valuable Internet
resource is Ishmail, an electronic mailing list devoted to
the discussion of Melville, his works, and other related subjects.
Moby-Dick Marathon Fifth annual nonstop reading of the novel in New Bedford, MA
- Breaking News: Current Melville Events
- Biographical: (Biographies, Melville and Hawthorne, Quotes
by and about Melville, and more)
- The Works: (Excerpts and
Electronic Texts, Publishing History, Criticism, and more)
- The Gam: Other Melville-Related Sites on the Web
- Postscript: Links to Whales, Sailing, Literature, and
more
- Credits: The People and Sources behind these pages
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"Some zealous lovers of the general literature of the age, as well as declared devotees to his own great genius,
frequently petitioned him for the materials wherewith to frame his biography. They assured him, that life of all
things was most insecure. He might feel many years in him yet; time might go lightly by him; but in any
sudden and fatal sickness, how would his last hours be embittered by the thought, that he was about to depart
forever, leaving the world utterly unprovided with the knowledge of what were the precise texture and hue of
the first trowsers he wore. These representations did certainly touch him in a very tender spot, not previously
unknown to the schoolmaster." --Pierre, Book XVII
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"Who shall tell all the thoughts and feelings of Pierre in that desolate and shivering room, when at last the idea
obtruded, that the wiser and the profounder he should grow, the more and the more he lessened the chances for
bread; that could he now hurl his deep book out of the window, and fall to on some shallow nothing of a novel,
composable in a month at the longest, then could he reasonably hope for both appreciation and cash. But the
devouring profundities, now opened up in him, consume all his vigor; would he, he could not now be
entertainingly and profitably shallow in some pellucid and merry romance."
--Pierre, Book XXIIHerman Melville
Online
- Links to complete
electronic texts of Melville's works (at present only the
more popular novels and several short pieces are available). Many
thanks to Heyward Ehrlich of Rutgers University for his generous
assistance with this section.
Publishing History,
Excerpts, Contemporary Reviews
Criticism
Other Melvilleana
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The Gam: Other Melville-Related Sites on the Web
"If two strangers crossing the Pine Barrens in New York State, or the equally desolate Salisbury Plain in
England; if casually encountering each other in such inhospitable wilds, these twain, for the life of them, cannot
well avoid a mutual salutation; and stopping for a moment to interchange the news; and, perhaps, sitting down
for a while and resting in concert: then, how much more natural that upon the illimitable Pine Barrens and
Salisbury Plains of the sea, two whaling vessels descrying each other at the ends of the earth -- off lone
Fanning's Island, or the far away King's Mills; how much more natural, I say, that under such circumstances
these ships should not only interchange hails, but come into still closer, more friendly and sociable contact....
For not only would they meet with all the sympathies of sailors, but likewise with all the peculiar congenialities
arising from a common pursuit and mutually shared privations and perils." --Moby-Dick, Chapter 53
(The Gam)
Melville's Geography
Museums
Melville in the Arts
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Postscript: Of Related Interest
"...Resolve as one may to keep to the main road, some bypaths have an enticement not
readily to be withstood." --Billy Budd, Chapter 4
Whales
The Age of Sail
Other Nineteenth-Century American Giants
Other Great Literary Sites
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"For though the naked soul of man doth assuredly contain one latent element of intellectual productiveness; yet
never was there a child born solely from one parent; the visible world of experience being that procreative thing
which impregnates the muses; self-reciprocally efficient hermaphrodites being but a fable." --Pierre,
Book XVIII
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"For small erections may be finished by their first architects;
grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity."
--Moby-Dick, Chapter 32 (Cetology)
Can you
provide additional information on Melville, his works, or
anything else that belongs here? Let us know! Your contributions,
comments, queries, and suggestions are welcomed by jmadden@melville.org.
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revised July 25, 2000