Beacon Hill Roll Call Jun 17, 2008
Moby Dick (H 3964) The House approved a bill making Herman Melville s Moby Dick the official epic novel of Massachusetts. The measure was filed by fifth-grade students of the Egremont Elementary School in Pittsfield, Melville s home town, as part of an exercise to learn about the legislative process. (Beverly Citizen, MA)
Taufiq Ismail: A constant battle against ignorance Jun 15, 2008
He went to Milwaukee, in the United States, where he got a taste of Western education and could enjoy the works of great writers like Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Edgar Alan Poe, Herman Melville and Ernest Hemingway. From then on, he was convinced that school provided a perfect framework for instilling the reading habit. (Jakarta Post, Indonesia -- Features)
JK Rowling: how small can you go? May 31, 2008
And perhaps Herman Melville would not have lived such a life of penury if he had had the nous to publish a prequel to his most famous work featuring a single scene, in which a couple walk into a Nantucket bookshop, the wife clearly eight and a half months pregnant, pick up a book of baby names and open it randomly at the letter I. Hell, if they'd followed the Rowling model the blokes who wrote the Book of Genesis could have scratched It was a dark and stormy night on to a scrap of papyrus and... (Times Online)
A Rising Tide of Ignorance May 3, 2008
In my own personal survey of stories from various newspapers in the last week, I found numerous literary references to T.S. Eliot ("The Wasteland" and "The Hollow Men"), William Shakespeare ("Macbeth" and "Hamlet"), Herman Melville ("Billy Budd" and "Moby Dick") and William Faulkner ("The Sound and the Fury"). No Child Left Behind legislation was well intentioned, but its emphasis on testing has had unintended consequences. (Townhall.com)
South Amenia church restores historic stained glass window Apr 18, 2008
These have the theme of men and women of letters and include authors such as Herman Melville and Oliver Wendell Holmes. During the 1930s Depression years, the Howards opened their farmhouse home as a restaurant and bed-and-breakfast. (Henrietta Post, NY)
What's next? The Marauder's Map? Apr 15, 2008
After all, didn't Herman Melville say many years ago that "the best places are not on any map". True, they are not. (Globe and Mail -- Technology)
IN MY LIBRARY: MORGAN FREEMAN Apr 13, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008 Last Update: 06:50 AM EDT. April 13, 2008 -- Given that he's sometimes played God, it shouldn't surprise you to know that one of Morgan Freeman's favorite books is. (New York Post -- Opinions)
Shining on the college scene: Catoosa student finds fun in forensics Apr 8, 2008
Book: As far as literature goes, my favorite book/short story is "Benito Cereno" by Herman Melville. TV show: "The Office.". (Catoosa County News, GA)
IN MY LIBRARY: NICK CAVE Apr 6, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008 Last Update: 06:50 AM EDT. April 6, 2008 -- Nick Cave, the England-based, Australia-raised dark rocker (as well as author, screen writer and actor) and his band the Bad Seeds, ditched most of the familiar piano and electric guitars and added a lot of organ for their 14th studio album, "Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" due Tuesday. (New York Post -- Opinions)
Injecting some truth? Apr 3, 2008
The great American author Herman Melville wrote about a man attempting to haul in the big one in Moby-Dick "Call me Ishmael. ..." , and this is Canseco's ongoing quest to reel in a few big ones of his own. But if his latest offerings are the "absolute truth", why weren't they in his first book. (CBS News)
Readers' picks Apr 1, 2008
I have been enjoying White Jacket: Or the World in a Man-of-War by Herman Melville. Published in 1850 and written before his famous "Moby Dick," Melville describes what it was like serving on a warship for a year as our comparably young American Navy was trying to establish all its traditions and reputation for military success. (Christian Science Monitor)
Recognizing Melville's epic tale Mar 24, 2008
Although most of Herman Melville's story takes place aboard a whaling ship, Ishmael's flight from suicidal despair takes readers on an intellectual and spiritual voyage through history, geography, philosophy, archaeology, theology, astronomy, and cetology - the subject of a chapter spoofing man's attempts to know whales by classifying them as an antiquarian classifies old books ... Laurie Robertson-Lorant is the author of "Melville: A Biography" and "The Man Who Lived among the Cannibals: Poems... (Boston Globe)
Whalers' ink runs red as blood in hunters' seas Feb 26, 2008
IN 1851, Herman Melville wrote in Moby Dick: "As this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among landsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; therefore, I am all anxiety to convince ye of the injustice hereby done to us hunters of whales.". No better regarded by landsmen today, the business of whaling has another disadvantage. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Salman Rushdie kicks off Series Jan 25, 2008
Rushdie told them he was influenced by writers such as Samuel Beckett, Gunter Grass, William Faulkner, Herman Melville and Jorge Luis Borges. But a writer must let go of his influences and find his own voice. (Ellensburg Daily Record, WA)
Robert Henri Jan 14, 2008
Henri and his comrades felt they were part of a fresh wave of American expression that followed the visions of poet and novelist Herman Melville. Initial reception was less than enthused, however, with outright disgust over The Eight s work. (Suite101.com)
Captain Ahab and the Islamic whale Jan 11, 2008
"Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy?"- Herman Melville, Moby Dick ... "All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable, in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then,... (Asia Times Online)
Covering the world Jan 3, 2008
Herman Melville s Moby-Dick, with its great white demon, was published in 1851. By the early 1900s, many species of whales had been decimated by hunting, fishing nets, shipping and habitat destruction. (Helena Independent Record, MT)
Turn the page: Waverly Public Library celebrates 150 years Dec 15, 2007
Adult favorites were "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville. "We still have a number of books written 150 years ago on the shelves," Meyer-Reyerson said. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)
Forgotten whale tale resurfaces Dec 13, 2007
She may have told the story to her grandson, Herman Melville, who published in 1851 an American literary masterpiece about a great white whale, "Moby-Dick.". "It's pure speculation, but I've always wondered if she told Herman the story of the great white whale at Fort Orange," said Charles Gehring, director of the New Netherland Project, who translated the Hooges account. (Albany Times Union)
Elizabeth Hardwick Dec 6, 2007
Her biography of Herman Melville was published in 2000. But in general she found her chief consolation in her memories and in her own work, producing Sleepless Nights and Seduction and Betrayal, Women and Literature (1974). (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Elizabeth Hardwick, 91, a N.Y. literary light Dec 5, 2007
Ms. Hardwick wrote three novels, many short stories and a short biography of Herman Melville. In 1999, the Modern Library released "American Fictions," a compilation of her criticism. (Boston Globe)
Elizabeth Hardwick, Kentucky-born author Dec 5, 2007
Hardwick wrote three novels, many short stories and a short biography of Herman Melville, part of the popular "Penguin Lives" series. In the 1940s, she became acquainted with Billie Holiday and wrote about the singer in "Sleepless Nights." In 1999, the Modern Library released "American Fictions," a compilation of her criticism. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Read on... Dec 1, 2007
An all virtual CGI version of Moby Dick by Herman Melville and IF I Did It by O.J. Simpson. Last film I saw:No Country for Old Men, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. (Variety)
Secrets in rare cartography Nov 21, 2007
In the librarys more recent history, Baruth unearthed two prizes from the wall-length bookshelf in his own office: a first-edition copy of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville and a travel book given to the AGS by a young Teddy Roosevelt. Neither was found in the catalog at the time. (EurekAlert!)
Alive in the Hills Nov 12, 2007
One of the Berkshires' early famous residents was Herman Melville, who was said to have gotten the inspiration for the white whale in Moby Dick by the profile of Mount Greylock that he could see from the study window of his rambling farmhouse in Pittsfield; to him, it resembled the back of a surfacing whale. In the 20th century, Pittsfield's fortunes rose and fell with General Electric Co., its largest employer. (Boston Globe)
Books await reviewers for the Tribune Oct 21, 2007
" One of my favorite openings comes from Herman Melville in Moby Dick - "Call me Ishmael. " And one of the simplest (which is often the best) openings comes from Genesis: "In the beginning. (Bismarck Tribune, ND)
Raymond Phillips Oct 14, 2007
Dr. Phillips, who was an expert on fiction of the American West, also taught courses on Puritan and Colonial literature and American Romanticism, focusing on the works of Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper and Edgar Allan Poe. "He loved Emily Dickinson and could recite many of her poems and those of Robert Frost from memory," Dr. Mangan said. (Sunspot.net -- Sports)
Museum gets in toon with new gallery Oct 9, 2007
It will include drawings from "Charlotte's Web"; the original French version of "Babar"; "Hakugei -- The Legend of Moby Dick," a Japanese update of the Herman Melville novel; "Winnie the Pooh"; "Lord of the Rings"; and more. Next is "Plot Threads," which explores how story lines are developed and features regional artists from the Great Lakes Cartoonists group, and "Kidding Around," a look at how children are portrayed in such comics as "Peanuts" and "Dennis the Menace.". (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
Whale disposal is a hulking task Oct 8, 2007
In "Moby-Dick," Herman Melville didn't care much for burning whale flesh. "It smells like the left wing of the Day of Judgment," he wrote. (Los Angeles Times)
Has NYC lost its soul? Oct 5, 2007
Is this the same New York City that inspired generations of writers, musicians and artists, from Herman Melville to Billie Holiday to the denizens of Andy Warhol's Factory. Or is some essential aspect of the city's unique character, perhaps even its very soul, being squashed in the rush to make Manhattan look more like the rest of America. (Newsday -- New York City)
Officials won't let Barbee's e-mail die Sep 23, 2007
In a strangely similar tale by Herman Melville, Moby Dick did not swim away, but fought back and destroyed the harpooners on the boats in addition to the whaling ship and Captain Ahab. Moby Dave is out there somewhere with a big harpoon through his heart. (The Augusta Chronicle)
Barney's rubble Sep 20, 2007
And anyway, hasn't Herman Melville done whales already. Perhaps Barney has read too many of his own reviews. (Guardian Unlimited)
Nantucket is a whale of a time Sep 15, 2007
Author Herman Melville based his novel "Moby Dick" on his own experiences on a New Bedford whaler and from what happened to the Nantucket whaling ship Essex. It was twice rammed and sunk in 1819 by an 85-foot sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
Fire and flood threat to our literary heritage Sep 12, 2007
The John Murray archive, bought by the library for 33 million, includes 150,000 items, including private letters, manuscripts and other correspondence from Jane Austen, Benjamin Disraeli, Herman Melville, David Livingstone, Thomas Carlyle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edith Wharton. It includes the letter Charles Darwin wrote proposing The Origin of Species, and a unique collection of Lord Byron's correspondence. (Scotsman)
'Real Identity Act' Targets Innocents Aug 24, 2007
NewsMax - America's News Page. SIGN UP FOR FREE NEWS ALERTS. (Newsmax)
Move over, sacred cod Aug 14, 2007
"Nowhere in all America," wrote Herman Melville, "will you find more patrician-like houses, parks, and gardens more opulent, than in New Bedford . . . all these brave houses and flowery gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the bottom of the sea.". Why should the right and the sperm whales be honored at the State House, when there were other species of whale that Massachusetts whalemen pursued, including bowheads,... (Boston Globe)
30 years after his death, Elvis lives on in the digital age Aug 14, 2007
Mason likens Presley's contributions to those of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Herman Melville, whose influence on lyrical poetry and novelistic structure have reverberated through centuries. "Elvis, frankly, had an even wider impact on popular culture than those two, simply due to the mass communication of our age," Mason says. (USA Today)
Austen's sex and sensibility Aug 6, 2007
So is Herman Melville, but bumper stickers and T-shirts say "What would Jane do?" not "What would Herman do?" A few other female writers have achieved pop- culture celebrity: Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath for the drama of their suicides; the Brontes for the gothic romance of their novels and the contrast to their quiet lives. None inspires the warmth, fanaticism - or merchandising - that Austen does. (Sydney Morning Herald)
OPINION -- Let there be might: Extreme metal is bigger than the Beatles Aug 4, 2007
With their album Leviathan, Mastodon condenses Herman Melville s classic Moby Dick into a 47-minute sonic journey that captures the book s sense of paranoia, obsession and adventure. Sometimes a metal band s music is so jaw-dropping that the lyrics don t even matter. (Canton Daily Ledger, IL)
Where the wild things were Jul 29, 2007
The story itself is preceded by two quotations from the alpha and omega of American Transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville, which made me lick my chops in happy expectation of the worst. We begin with the arrival of Will Andrews in the tiny Kansas town of Butcher's Crossing in the 1870s. (Boston Globe)
Memo to Politicians and Poets: Fame Is Fleeting Jul 19, 2007
He calls Halleck "the anti-Melville," because Herman Melville was largely ignored in his own time but is revered now, while Halleck has gone the opposite way. (Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1887, observed that, "Of Halleck's poetical writings it has been well said that brilliancy of thought, quaintness of fancy and polished energy of diction have given them a rank in American literature from which they will not soon be displaced." The Cyclopedia had a short article noting Herman... (Townhall.com)
Into the deep Jul 1, 2007
This is the drama that fascinated whaling veteran Herman Melville enough to pen what is arguably the masterwork of American literature. Dolin quotes Melville on the mightiness of his theme, but he declines to dive into the murky waters of myth and imagination, whether of the sailors or the reformers. (Boston Globe)
Old Mazatlán's cultural heart Jul 1, 2007
Mazatln's makeover / Long neglected, the seaside resort's historic core is coming back to life (San Francisco Chronicle -- Travel)
Are you on a side? Jul 1, 2007
wrote on Jun 30, 2007 11:50 AM:" 'America' has different resonances but it was never of course the 'perfection' politically imagined on July 4ths. Even as 'early' as the 1840s and '50s the greatest American writers (still I think) Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville were authoring books about the darkness suppressed and un-, plus the fantastical reach toward romantic imagination to fill the void. The most intriguing success of this culture to me is the movies which always attempt to... (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
He takes epic challenge of telling history of American whaling Jun 30, 2007
NEW BEDFORD -- From Homer to Herman Melville to Tom Clancy, stories of men and the sea have always been in fashion. In that broad category, one of the newer moneymaking niches is narrative history for the general reader. (Boston Globe)
Don't let heat burn up reading lists Jun 22, 2007
Wanna-be censors in the past have objected to other classics such as "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Luckily, the First Amendment - our freedom to speak or read what we choose - can be called upon as a panacea in such cases. Commack High School officials have chosen to open the door for irate mother Cindy Henis to join their book list committee. (Newsday -- Opinion)
An end to school year, career Jun 11, 2007
Mason has seen the 194-year-old school that counts Herman Melville, Erastus Corning 2nd and Andy Rooney as alumni through monumental changes. She shaped the merger of the two academies, which becomes official on July 1, and guided the all-boys school as it eliminated its mandatory military battalion, which dated to the 19th century. (Albany Times Union)
Sag Harbor by the book Jun 5, 2007
The character is Queequeg, the stalwart South Seas "cannibal" and harpoonist; the brief passage, an anecdote about wheelbarrows, is in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick." That the village even rates a mention in such an epic work is a symbolic feather in Sag Harbor's literary cap and hints at the reason it became such a remarkable, if under-the-radar, haven for writers ... Steinbeck, James Fenimore Cooper and Truman Capote -- plus Herman Melville (although it's not certain that he, as opposed to... (Newsday -- Long Island)
‘Courage' a tale of a young man at sea: Alfred author Littell adds to family success with re-release of novel May 30, 2007
The formula is pure adventure, but Littell hopes the book will make readers think, as well as entertain the ocean has a long-standing status as a literary symbol, partially defining the careers of authors like Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville. spent enough years at sea to have an idea what the sea is, Littell says. (Hornell Evening Tribune, NY)
Move over, Oprah May 6, 2007
Herman Melville wrote his tale of the great white whale in a farmhouse, now a museum, in the city's southeastern corner. But an official state book is different from the official state cookie (chocolate chip). (Boston Globe)
In Pittsfield, a mighty hope for a great tale May 1, 2007
And while the novel may be too much for youngsters to digest, they did know that the house where Herman Melville wrote "Moby-Dick" is a popular Pittsfield tourist attraction and is just a few blocks away from their school. As for the bill's chances, Speranzo said, "That'll take some time, but I think it's a great way to show them how our government works.". (Boston Globe)
- Jonathan Jones May 1, 2007
To read Herman Melville is, it's true, to discover a voice that has no European precedent; that voice resounds in American art. It has been analysed and admired by Europeans, from DH Lawrence writing his Studies in Classic American Literature to Damien Hirst making a work that combined Judd's box-like sculptural manner with the content of John Singleton Copley's American painting Watson and the Shark. (Guardian Unlimited)
Michael B. Oren Apr 26, 2007
In December 1856, the Dickson farm hosted an usual visitorthe author Herman Melville ... John Steinbecks grandfather had met Herman Melville in the Middle East, in a colony created by Philip Dickson. (FrontPage Magazine)
NYC couple sets sail on 1,000-day cruise Apr 23, 2007
They also have a small library of books on yoga, meditation and spirituality, as well as art and history, plus the collected works of Joseph Conrad and every book written by Herman Melville, including Moby Dick. Source: China Daily/agencies. (People's Daily Online, China)
NY Couple Sets Sail For 1,000 Days At Sea Apr 22, 2007
While Stowe and Ahmad hope to stay far even from islands, their schooner is carrying every book written by Herman Melville, including "Moby Dick," and the collected works of Joseph Conrad. They also have a small library of books on yoga, meditation and spirituality, as well as art and history. (CBS New York, NY)
Nine to five Apr 21, 2007
But she's never read that story by Herman Melville called "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street". She sneaks the book into the women's, settles herself in a stall, and encounters - come now. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Or the White Whale Apr 19, 2007
A Civic Stage production of a play in one act, adapted by John Heimbuch from the novel "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville ... While this ensemble work incorporates music and physicality, it is also true to Herman Melville's bleak poetry and despairing view of existence, if at times lacking in the source material's deep complexity. (Variety)
Book roundup: Debut fiction Apr 12, 2007
Hays tries to inject literary intrigue by involving her heroine in a plot to acquire a lost Herman Melville manuscript, building to a final twist that feels a bit contrived. Still, for anyone who has only dreamed of living in a big, crazy, cosmopolitan city, Secret offers a diverting facsimile of true life. (USA Today -- Life)
I didn't forget. The shark ate my memories. Apr 9, 2007
Perhaps Herman Melville meets Michael Crichton, or Thomas Pynchon meets Douglas Adams. No matter, the book is full of big, wild ideas brought to gloriously convoluted fruition. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Vienna Choir Boys ~ St. Margaret's to host world-famous musicians Mar 15, 2007
In 2004, the Musikverein will host another of the choir's productions: the world premiere of Raoul Gehringer's oby-Dick, a children's opera based on the book by Herman Melville. Since the 1920s, the choir has collected music on its travels. (Desert Entertainer, CA)
Faith in stories| Mar 14, 2007
Herman Melville was slaving away in the customs office in the States because, when 'Moby Dick' came out, people were going: This is a travesty, this isnt the great American novel. Would Herman Melville have liked that it sold a few more copies so that he could write full-time. (iAfrica.com)
New on DVD: 'Peter Pan,' 'Borat' Mar 9, 2007
Pure good vs. impure evil, Herman Melville style. A once-praised, now underrated film that may have been dwarfed in an exceptional movie year. (USA Today -- Life)
Tracking sperm whales and jumbo squid Mar 9, 2007
The sperm whale was immortalized by Herman Melville in his novel Moby-Dick. Heavily hunted for their oil during Melvilles time, the sperm whale population today ranges somewhere between 360,000 to 1 million. (EurekAlert!)
Books you can't live without: the top 100 Mar 1, 2007
70 Moby Dick Herman Melville. 71 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Historical society celebrates 10-year anniversary Feb 27, 2007
Authors such as Harriet Jacobs, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass and Lydia Child are been profiled. "The teachers can then put curriculum together for young people," Ms. Blake said. (The Standard-Times, MA)
