The Melville scholar John Bryant traces the roots of the author’s fascination with the sea from his childhood days in Manhattan. In the introduction to the Penguin edition of Typee (1846), Bryant writes:
Much of the area is now a park built on landfill, but in earlier days Pearl Street stretched along the waterfront, and the Melville home stood right at the confluence of the Hudson and East Rivers, so that in the summer of his first year Melville learned to walk on the edges of New York Harbor. Today, iron railings gird those edges, allowing tourists to lean safely and observe the Statue of Liberty, but the infant Melville toddled the area unfenced in search of the seashells that gave his street its name. Thirty years later, in the voice of Ishmael, the author would describe his old backyard as a magnet for all manner of seekers
Your article gives me a hunger to re-read Melville. Can you also give me the time?
You can think of the Pequod as essentially a floating New York City. Except, of course, for its notable lack of half of humanity.
Matthew: Or you can think of New York City as a floating America, I guess.
OWTD: I’m not sure we can make time, but we can offer another excuse: McNally Jackson and ToNY are hosting a Moby-Dick book club discussion on November 29. I’m going to be one of the people on hand to offer my two cents about why it’s so great and some tips on how to get through it for those who’ve bogged down somewhere around the Cetology chapter. Details here.