The Melville Society is dedicated to the study and appreciation of the nineteenth-century American author Herman Melville, writer of Typee, Moby-Dick, and Billy Budd, such short stories as “Bartleby” and “Benito Cereno,” and several volumes of poetry, including Battle-Pieces and the epic Clarel. We publish the award-winning journal Leviathan which all members receive three times a year and which offers scholarly articles, book and art reviews, Society news, and Melville-related events. Membership is open to all. For information about Leviathan and joining The Melville Society click here.
The Eaton Portrait
By permission of Houghton Library, Harvard University: 61Z-4
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Melville Electronic Library
The Melville Electronic Library is an online resource for Melville texts. Housed on a Hofstra University server, MEL is being developed and maintained by a group of Melville scholars and digital specialists.
Johns Hopkins University Press
To join the Melvillle Society and subscribe to Leviathan, visit Leviathan's Johns Hopkins University Press journal site by clicking here.
Melville Society Cultural Project
The New Bedford Whaling Museum in collaboration with The Melville Society is the established home of the Melville Society Cultural Project and Melville Society Archive. The Melville Society Archive is housed at the New Bedford Whaling Museum's Research Library, where significant works from this collection are also on display. The Melville Society Cultural Project also sponsors a book donation program and presents exciting annual events including the Moby-Dick Marathon and a Birthday Lecture.
Herman Melville's Arrowhead
Herman Melville's Arrowhead Facebook Group page of the Berkshire Historical Society. Celebrating historical Berkshire County and Herman Melville's Arrowhead, the farm and home where Melville lived while writing Moby-Dick.
Series II:
Jay Leyda left a box of papers with a friend during his peripatetic life. The contents of this collection comprise a wide assortment of materials and subjects of interest to Jay Leyda. One folder, labeled “Melville Log,” contained material concerning Leyda’s research and planning of that work, but also contained a variety of unrelated material. The rest of the papers range over a variety of subjects and were apparently packed randomly into this box.
In creating this finding aid, I have kept the papers in the “Melville Log” folder separate simply because Leyda labeled them in that manner. Scholars seeking information on Leyda’s research into Melville’s life and work should therefore seek it in both the “Melville Log” folder and the other Melville categories.
Much of the material contained herein is difficult or impossible to date with any certainty. Many of the individual sheets of paper have notes on several very different subjects related only by Leyda’s interest in them. I have categorized each piece according to its predominant subject, but those seeking minutia are encouraged to explore the entire collection carefully.
Detailed Container List
BOX 8: Odd size items: mostly research notes (4 folders)
8: Folder 1
Research and personal notes on 3x5 paper
8: Folder 2
Oversize Research notes on Melville Family
8: Folder 3
Notes and Library slips bundled in rubber bands
8: Folder 4
3x5 Accordion folder filled with notes
Subscriptions and Membership
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The Melville Society on Facebook
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Fellowships and Scholarships
Melville Society Archive
Walter E. Bezanson Fellowship
The Melville Society, under the auspices of the Melville Society Cultural Project in New Bedford, offers an annual fellowship to help a scholar undertake research on Herman Melville at the Society’s Archive in the Research Library of the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Click here for more information and application details.
New York Public Library
Short-term Research Fellowships
Graduate students or other affiliated academics whose work would benefit from visiting the Manuscripts and Archives Division to view collections such as the Gansevoort-Lansing collection, and Duyckinck family papers are encouraged to apply.
Click here for more information and application details.
Links
Woodlawn Cemetary
Woodlawn Cemetary - final resting place of Herman, his wife, Elizabeth, and other family members. Click here to view photos of the gravesites.
125th Anniversary Celebration
A celebration of Melville's life at Woodlawn Cemetary on the 125th anniversary of his passing.
Lansingburgh Historical Society
Melville lived for nine years in this Lansingburgh house. It was here that he wrote Typee and Omoo.
Berkshire Historical Society
Melville's Arrowhead home and farm in Pittsfield, MA where he wrote Moby-Dick and lived for most of the 1850s.