Devil Doc
When Death smiles, Corpsmen smile back
It's the birthday of Herman Melville, born in New York City (1819). He's the man who wrote in his novel Moby-Dick (1851), "Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."
Melville had only become a writer by chance. When he was twelve, his father died, after having racked up a huge amount of debt. Melville was pulled out of school and sent to work at a bank for $150 a year. After several years of boring desk jobs, Melville decided to get out into the world, and so at the age of twenty he signed on with a whaling ship.
Melville's adventures as a sailor changed his life. He came back to the United States and began writing books about adventures on the high seas. His first book, Typee (1846), became a big success. Then in 1847, he borrowed an edition of Shakespeare from a friend. He'd always had trouble reading Shakespeare because he had poor eyesight, and most of the Shakespeare editions were printed with small type. But this one was printed in large type, and Melville was blown away by what he could finally enjoy. He wrote in a letter to his friend, "Dolt ... that I am, I have lived more than 29 years, & until a few days ago, never made close acquaintance with the divine William. ... I now exult over it, page after page."
Around the same time, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne for the first time, and between reading Shakespeare and meeting Hawthorne, he started to think about trying to write a great book that would rank with the masters of English literature. And so he began Moby-Dick, the story of a young man named Ishmael who joins a whaling expedition only to find that the ship's Captain Ahab is dangerously obsessed with hunting down a mysterious white whale that once tore off his leg.
Melville started Moby-Dick in the winter of 1850 and finished in the summer of 1851, writing all day every day without eating until four or five in the evening. But Moby-Dick was a total flop. Melville's readers wanted adventure stories, and Moby-Dick was an adventure story, but the adventure was obscured by the language. It takes more than a hundred pages before the characters even get on the ship. And once they're at sea, Melville keeps interrupting the action with philosophy and poetry. He devotes an entire chapter to describing the whiteness of the whale. It got terrible reviews, and almost nobody read it.
It wasn't until the 1920s, when American literature professors began a revival of interest in American fiction that Melville's work was rediscovered, and people realized that Moby-Dick was one of the greatest novels in the English language.
Doc.
Melville had only become a writer by chance. When he was twelve, his father died, after having racked up a huge amount of debt. Melville was pulled out of school and sent to work at a bank for $150 a year. After several years of boring desk jobs, Melville decided to get out into the world, and so at the age of twenty he signed on with a whaling ship.
Melville's adventures as a sailor changed his life. He came back to the United States and began writing books about adventures on the high seas. His first book, Typee (1846), became a big success. Then in 1847, he borrowed an edition of Shakespeare from a friend. He'd always had trouble reading Shakespeare because he had poor eyesight, and most of the Shakespeare editions were printed with small type. But this one was printed in large type, and Melville was blown away by what he could finally enjoy. He wrote in a letter to his friend, "Dolt ... that I am, I have lived more than 29 years, & until a few days ago, never made close acquaintance with the divine William. ... I now exult over it, page after page."
Around the same time, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne for the first time, and between reading Shakespeare and meeting Hawthorne, he started to think about trying to write a great book that would rank with the masters of English literature. And so he began Moby-Dick, the story of a young man named Ishmael who joins a whaling expedition only to find that the ship's Captain Ahab is dangerously obsessed with hunting down a mysterious white whale that once tore off his leg.
Melville started Moby-Dick in the winter of 1850 and finished in the summer of 1851, writing all day every day without eating until four or five in the evening. But Moby-Dick was a total flop. Melville's readers wanted adventure stories, and Moby-Dick was an adventure story, but the adventure was obscured by the language. It takes more than a hundred pages before the characters even get on the ship. And once they're at sea, Melville keeps interrupting the action with philosophy and poetry. He devotes an entire chapter to describing the whiteness of the whale. It got terrible reviews, and almost nobody read it.
It wasn't until the 1920s, when American literature professors began a revival of interest in American fiction that Melville's work was rediscovered, and people realized that Moby-Dick was one of the greatest novels in the English language.
Doc.