Spirit of America Bookstore
Herman Melville
[1819-91]
 | short profile |  |
"I would prefer not to." — Bartleby the Scrivener
"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
"Heaven have mercy on us all – Presbyterians and Pagans alike – for we are all dreadfully cracked
about the head and desperately in need of mending."
"We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people – the Israel of our times; we bear the ark of liberties of the world."
"It is not down in any map; true places never are."
"Art is the objectification of feeling."
— Herman Melville
B I O
t e x t
h e r e
The Melville Society [est. 1945] is based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland
Herman Melville entry at Wikipedia
The Berkshire Historical Society [est. 1962] at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead Farm in Pittsfield, MA
browse books
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Herman Melville credits [since 1926] at Internet Movie Database
browse DVDs
46 online etexts at UPenn
'The Life and Works of Herman Melville' fansite {last update 2000}
Primary Works
 | "The Works of Herman Melville: Standard Edition In 16 Volumes" [1922-24] from publisher Constable in London, Edited by Raymond M. Weaver the complete set is long out of print and quite scarce, and not showing on Amazon at all (2015) |
  | "The Shorter Novels of Herman Melville" [1928] Edited & with an Introduction by Raymond M. Weaver each is not really long enough to qualify as a novel: "Bartleby, The Scrivener" [1853 novelette]; "Benito Cereno" [1855 novella]; "Billy Budd, Foretopman" [1924 novella]; and "The Encan-tadas" [1854 novella] Liveright Publng (aqua cover) 7½x4¾ pb [9/78] for $20.38 Fawcett (tan cover) mass pb [11/80] out of print/used Fawcett Premier (blue cover) 10¾x6½ pb [1967] out of print/used Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library pb [1928] out of print/used Liveright Publng 'Black & Gold' hardcover [1942] out of print/used |
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Herman Melville: "Typee", "Omoo", "Mardi" [1982] Edited by G. Thomas Tanselle
Library of America 8¼x5¼ hardcover [5/82] for $30.97 includes South Pacific tales "Typee" [1846], "Omoo" [1847] and "Mardi" [1849] Herman Melville: "Redburn", "White-Jacket", "Moby-Dick" [1983] Edited by G. Thomas Tanselle Library of America 8¼x5¼ hardcover [4/83] for $30.67 includes Atlantic sea tales "Redburn" [1849], "White-Jacket" [1850] and "Moby -Dick, or The Whale" [1851] Herman Melville: "Pierre", "Israel Potter", "The Piazza Tales", "The Confidence-Man", "Billy Budd", Uncollected Prose [1985] Edited by G. Thomas Tanselle Library of America 8x5¼ hardcover [4/85] for $31.50 includes "Pierre" [1852], "Israel Potter" [1856], "The Piazza Tales" [1856], "The Confidence-Man" [1857], and "Billy Budd, Sailor" [1924] Herman Melville: Moby Dick, Billy Budd and Other Writings [2000] Edited by G. Thomas Tanselle Library of America College Editions 8x5 pb [8/2000] out of print/used includes "Moby-Dick" [1851], "Billy Budd, Sailor" [1924], stories "Bartleby, The Scrivener" & "The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles" [1856], an essay on Hawthorne, and 21 poems |
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"Typee: A Peep At Polynesian Life" [1846] ()
"Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures In The South Seas" [1847] ()
"Mardi: And A Voyage Thither" [1849]
"Redburn: His First Voyage" [1849]
"White-Jacket; or, The World In A Man-of-War" [1850]
epic novel "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale" [1851]
Monomaniacal Captain Ahab seeks vengeance on the white whale which ate his leg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick
Moby Dick Restaurant on Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara, California
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"Moby-Dick In Pictures: One Drawing For Every Page" graphic novel [2011] Illustrated by Matt Kish
http://www.amazon.com/Moby-Dick-Pictures-Drawing-Every-Page/dp/1935639129/
"The Great Floodgates of The Wonderworld: A Memoir" [Graywolf Press 2/2014] by Justin Hocking
A young man's journey to understand his obsessions: Moby-Dick, skateboarding, and surfing - 9781555976699
 | "Moby Dick" feature film [1956] Directed by John Huston; script by Ray Bradbury, John Huston & Norman Corwin, based on the epic 1851 novel by Herman Melville; starring Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, Royal Dano & Orson Welles MGM/UA DVD [6/2001] for $16.99 MGM/UA VHS video [8/99] for $13.99 full credits from IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
 | "Green Shadows, White Whale: A Novel of Ray Bradbury's Adventures Making Moby Dick With John Huston In Ireland" [1992] by Ray Bradbury [1920-2012]
Harper Perennial 8x5¼ pb [9/98] for $13.99 Spectra mass pb [7/93] out of print/used Knopf 8¾x6 hardcover [5/92] out of print/many used |
"Moby Dick" [1998 TV] by coppola
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_(2010_film)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick!_The_Musical
"Moby-Dick: A Grand Opera" [2010]
 | "Heggie and Scheer's Moby-Dick: A Grand Opera For The Twenty-First Century" [2013] by Robert K. Wallace, Photographs by Karen Almond, Foreword by Jake Heggie & Gene Scheer Kindle Edition from Univ North Texas Press [6/2013] for $36.00 {sic} Univ North Texas Press 9x11½ hardcover [6/2013] for $37.14 |
 | "Moby-Dick" as performed by the San Francisco Opera [2013] World premiere recording; "an opera that has everything"; both DVD & Blu-ray have subtitle options for English, German, French, Japanese, & Korean • Music by Jake Heggie; libretto by Gene Scheer; conducted by Patrick Summer; stage director Leonard Foglia; starring Jay Hunter Morris {as Capt. Ahab}, Stephen Costello {as Greenhorn}, Morgan Smith {as Starbuck}, Jonathan Lemalu {as Queequeg}, and Talise Trevigne {as Pip} 193-minute EuroArts widescreen color Blu-ray [10/2013] for $31.13 193-minute EuroArts widescreen color DVD [10/2013] 2 disks for $21.19 |
the whaling-ship 'Essex' [built 1799, sunk 1819]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)
"Narrative of The Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of The Whale-Ship Essex" [1821] by Owen Chase
http://www.amazon.com/Narrative-Extraordinary-Distressing-Shipwreck-Whale-Ship-ebook/dp/B00GPXMD9W/
"Shipwreck of The Whaleship Essex" [8/1999] by Owen Chase and Tim Cahill
http://www.amazon.com/Shipwreck-Whaleship-Essex-Owen-Chase/dp/1558218785/
"Narratives of The Wreck of the Whale-Ship Essex" [9/2015] by Owen Chase
http://www.amazon.com/Narratives-Wreck-Whale-Ship-Essex-Chase/dp/0486261212/
 | "The Loss of The Ship Essex, Sunk By A Whale" [2000] Edited with Introduction by Nathaniel Philbrick First-mate Owen Chase's classic account of the Essex disaster, "Narrative of The Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of The Whale-Ship Essex" was published in 1821; the narrative of cabin boy Thomas Nickerson was discovered in 1981 and published locally; this book also includes other original source material from that era Penguin Classics 7¾x5 pb [5/2000] for $10.15 |
 | "In The Heart of The Sea: The Tragedy of The Whaleship Essex" [2000] by Nathaniel Philbrick – book won the National Book Award Kindle Edition from Penguin Books [2001 edition] for $12.99 Penguin Books 8x5¼ pb [5/2001] for $12.70 Viking Adult 9¼x6¼ hardcover [5/2000] for $16.63 ABRIDGED version for Young Readers "Revenge of The Whale: The True Story of The Whaleship Essex" [10 years & up; 2002] by Nathaniel Philbrick Puffin Books 7½x5 pb [3/2004] for $7.19 Scholastic 8¾x6 pb [9/2003] out of print/130+ used Putnam Juvenile 9¼x6 hardcover [8/2002] out of print/70+ used |
"The Whale" [BBC Two 2013?]
Announced 4/2013: A 90-minute drama set to begin shooting this month or next; the 'Titanic' news story of its day, and said to be the inspiration for Melville's
1851 novel "Moby-Dick"; the Nantucket whaleship Essex, far from home in the South Pacific in 1820, was rammed by an angry sperm whale and sank,
leaving twenty crew members floating in three small boats for ninety days; Alrick Riley is directing, signed cast include John Boyega, Charles Furness,
Joe Armstrong, Jassa Ahluwalia, Adam Rayner, Jonas Armstrong • latest info at IMDb
"In The Heart of The Sea" [Fox 2015?] 
Announced 6/2012: Feature film to be directed by Ron Howard; screenplay by Charles Leavitt, based on the Nathaniel Philbrick novel;
starring Chris Hemsworth • latest info at IMDb
"Pierre: or, The Ambiguities" [1852]
"Bartleby The Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street" 'novelette' [1853]
Sometimes published as being a short story, sometimes (and wrongly) as a novel; online etext word count is 14,465, which makes it a novelette
(7,500 to 17,500 words). {Note that a novella is defined as 17,500 to 40,000 words, and a novel is over 40,000 or 50,000 words.}
"Benito Cereno" short story [1855]
"Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile" [1855]
"The Piazza Tales" stories [1856]
includes "Bartleby, The Scrivener" (1853 novelette); "The Bell-Tower"; "Benito Cereno" (1855 novella); "The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles"
(1854 novella - possibly incorporating a short rewrite of the lost "Isle of The Cross"); "The Lightning-Rod Man"; and "The Piazza"
"The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade" [1857]
"Battle-Pieces and Aspects of The War" poetry collection [1866]
"Billy Budd, Sailor: An Inside Narrative" [1891]
unfinished novella, published posthumously in 1924 as "Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces"; authoritative edition published in 1962
Other Works
"Isle of The Cross" [circa 1853]
Melville’s publishers Harper & Brothers rejected his sixth novel; the manuscript was destroyed by the author.
poem "The Martyr" [1866]
one several of poems in a collection about the death of Lincoln
epic poem "Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage In The Holy Land" [1876]
"John Marr and Other Sailors" poetry collection [1888]
"Timoleon and Other Ventures" poetry collection [1891]
rare "Weeds and Wildings, With A Rose or Two" poetry collection []
which Melville wrote for his wife; available only in two of the Kindle Editions below
"The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches" collection [1922]
includes title piece; "Cock-a-doodle-doo !"; "The Fiddler"; "The ‘gees"; "The Happy Failure", "Hawthorne and His Mosses"; "I and My Chimney" (story);
"Jimmy Rose"; "The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids"; and "Poor Man’s Pudding and Rich Man’s Crumbs"
Movies & TV, Stageplays, Other Media
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Herman Melville credits (3 shows) at Internet Broadway Database
 | "Billy Budd: A Play in Three Acts" [Biltmore Theatre, Feb-May 1951] Written by Louis O. Coxe & Robert Chapman; based on the novel by Herman Melville; starring Dennis King, Torin Thatcher, Charles Nolte, Lee Marvin & Walter Burke; 105 total performances official stageplay credits at Internet Broadway Database |
 | "Moby Dick - Rehearsed" [Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Nov-Dec 1962]
The story begins with actors onstage discussing the production of a stageplay of 'Moby Dick'; the second act takes place on a wharf and then on the whaling ship Pequod. Written by Orson Welles; loosely adapted from "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville; starring Rod Steiger in three roles, Bruno Gerussi & Lex Monson; 13 total performances official stageplay credits at Internet Broadway Database The entire play was filmed, but that footage is now presumed lost. playscript by Orson Welles [1965] 76-page Samuel French 8x5 pb [11/2011] for $9.95 |
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"Billy" [Billy Rose Theatre March 1969] Book by Stephen Glassman; music & lyrics by Ron Dante & Gene Allan; 'suggested by' the novel "Billy Budd" by Herman Melville; starring John Devlin, Laurence Naismith & Robert Salvio; 1 performance only official stageplay credits at Internet Broadway Database |
Herman Melville credits [54 films since 1926] at Internet Movie Database
credits as character 'Herman Melville' at Internet Movie Database
Kindle Editions
Nordell Bookstores Group Kindle Hardware & Content Page
with FREE Kindle Apps for PC, Mac, iPhone/iPod, iPad, Android & BlackBerry
 | "The Herman Melville Collection: 10 Novels, 16 Short Stories, and 4 Collections of Poetry" for Kindle [2011] 4,463-page Kindle Edition from A & L eBooks [7/2011] for $1.99 with an active table of contents for each book; the four poetry collections are "Battle Pieces", "Clarel", "John Marr", and "Timoleon" |
 | "Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville" for Kindle [2012]
5,430-page Kindle Edition from Delphi Classics [7/2012] for $2.51 many works with their original illustrations; many works annotated with concise introductions; many illustrations relating to Melville’s life and works; FICTION: all the novels (except "Billy Budd"), each with separate contents tables; and two short story collections; POETRY: the complete poetry collections, including the rare "Weeds and Wildings" (which Melville wrote for his wife - first time in digital print); uncollected poetry section, with rare works; separate chronologiccal and alphabetical contents tables for the poetry; NON-FICTION: Melville's complete essays 'available nowhere else'; and bonus collection of letters by Melville; PLUS: a criticism section, with essays on Melville by writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf; and Raymond Weaver's 'seminal biography' of Melville NOTE: "Billy Budd, Sailor" and two short stories are not available in this collection due to U.S. copyright restrictions; once they enter the U.S. public domain in 2020, they will be added to the e-book as a free update. |
 | "Herman Melville: Complete Collection of Works With Analysis and Historical Background (Annotated and Illustrated)" for Kindle [2013]
Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [8/2013] for $1.99 Illustrated with the original images; alphabetical & chronological indexes; each book with its own active Table of Contents; analyses, footnotes, and famous quotes; contains 10 novels: "Billy Budd, Sailor"; "The Confidence-Man"; "Israel Potter"; "Mardi: and A Voyage Thither" (2 volumes); "Moby Dick"; "Omoo"; "Pierre"; "Redburn"; "Typee"; and "White-Jacket"; two short story collections: "I and My Chimney" and "The Piazza Tales"; and six books of poetry; plus biography, criticism, and chronology. |
 | "Herman Melville: Complete Novels, Short Stories and Poems" for Kindle [2014] appears to be the multi-volume Complete Works [1922-24] from publisher Constable in London as edited by Raymond M. Weaver Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [2/2014] for $1.99 Amazon buyers complain that the indexing does not work; the short stories here include: "The Piazza Tales" (6 stories), "The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches" (10 stories), plus 'The Two Temples' and 'Daniel Orme' |
 | "The Complete Works of Herman Melville" for Kindle [2015]
Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [1/2015] for $2.99 contains '15 complete works of Herman Melville': "Bartleby, The Scrivener"; "Battle-Pieces and Aspects of The War"; "The Confidence-Man"; "I and My Chimney"; "Israel Potter"; "John Marr and Other Poems"; "Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Volumes I and II"; "Moby Dick"; "Omoo"; "The Piazza Tales"; "Pierre: or The Ambiguities"; "Redburn"; "Typee"; and "White Jacket" |
 | "The Collected Works of Herman Melville" for Kindle [2015]
Kindle Edition from PergamonMedia [4/2015] for $1.99 "complete 'significant works' in one e-book, 9,800 pages in easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate format"; the Table of Contents list on Amazon is quite confused, but seems to include: "Bartleby, The Scrivener"; "Battle-Pieces and Aspects of The War"; "The Confidence-Man"; "I and My Chimney"; "Israel Potter"; "John Marr and Other Poems"; "Mardi: and A Voyage Thither"; "Moby-Dick"; "Omoo"; "The Piazza Tales"; "Pierre"; "Poems From Timoleon" (16 poems); "Redburn: His First Voyage"; "Sea Pieces" (15 pieces); "Typee"; and "White Jacket" – plus Introductory Note, Supplement, and 'etc.' |
Quotations of Herman Melville
"But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight."
"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, "They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure."
"Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth."
"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written "The symmetry of form attainable in pure fiction can not so readily be achieved in a narration essentially having less
as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."
on the flea, though many there be that have tried it."
to do with fable than with fact. Truth uncompromisingly told will always have it ragged edges . . ."
Works About Herman Melville
"Literary Greats: Herman Melville" [2/2004] by Milton Meltzer
http://www.amazon.com/Herman-Melville-Literary-Greats-Meltzer/dp/0761327495/
"A Historical Guide To Herman Melville" [5/2005] by Giles Gunn
http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Herman-Melville-American-Authors-ebook/dp/B00JC5UT32/
"The Private Melville" [8/2005] by Philip Young
http://www.amazon.com/Private-Melville-Philip-Young/dp/027102674X/
"Hawthorne and Melville: Writing A Relationship" [6/2008] by Jana Argersinger and Leland Person
http://www.amazon.com/Hawthorne-Melville-Relationship-Jana-Argersinger/dp/0820327514/
"Melville's Mirrors: Literary Criticism and America's Most Elusive Author" [11/2011] by Brian Yothers
http://www.amazon.com/Melvilles-Mirrors-Literary-Criticism-Perspective/dp/157113509X/
"The Characteristic Theology of Herman Melville: Aesthetics, Politics, Duplicity" [11/2011]
by Bradley A. Johnson and David Jasper
http://www.amazon.com/Characteristic-Theology-Herman-Melville-Aesthetics/dp/1610973410/
"Frederick Douglass and Herman Melville: Essays In Relation" [9/2012] by Robert S. Levine & Samuel Otter
http://www.amazon.com/Frederick-Douglass-Herman-Melville-Relation-ebook/dp/B00AFENCG0/
"Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative" [2013] Hershel Parker
http://www.amazon.com/Melville-Biography-An-Inside-Narrative/dp/0810127091/
"Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 1, 1819-1851)" [] by Hershel Parker
http://www.amazon.com/Herman-Melville-Biography-Volume-1819-1851/dp/0801854288/
"Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 2, 1851-1891)" [] by Hershel Parker
http://www.amazon.com/Herman-Melville-Biography-Volume-1851-1891/dp/0801868920/
"A Companion To Herman Melville" [Blackwell 8/2015] by Wyn Kelley
http://www.amazon.com/Companion-Melville-Blackwell-Companions-Literature/dp/1119045274/
Image Gallery
Family & Friends
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literary critic & editor Raymond Melbourne Weaver [1888-1948]
published the 'seminal biography' of Melville in 1921 and edited the Constable editions of 1922-24
L i n k s
[ Coming Soon ] **
listed #100 on The Atlantic Monthly's Top 100 Most Influential Figures in American History [Dec 2006]
Nantucket Whaling Museum [built 1846, restored 2005], 13 Broad Street in Nantucket, Massachusetts
here on the Herman Melville [1819-91] Page at Spirit of America Bookstore
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