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
click for larger image
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.
The Melville Electronic Library (MEL) will consist of several interconnected "rooms" and "studios" in which users will find the different kinds of materials and services to help them conduct their Melville-related research. Thus far, we have projected four such rooms: The Library, Art Gallery, Hypertext Room, and our pedagogical room "First Encounters." Each room will have in it separate areas ("desks" or "studios") containing different categories of materials.
Report on the 2nd Melville Electronic Library Camp (MEL Camp 2)
Hofstra Univeristy - April 23, 2010
John Bryant reported on the progress made with Hofstra's TextLab program, which is encoding texts of Battle-Pieces, Moby-Dick, and Billy Budd for searching, and in the case of manuscripts, editing and interpretation as well.
Kenneth Price and Brett Barney showed new historical materials at the Walt Whitman Electronic Archive on the Civil War.
Steven Olsen-Smith provided an update on progress at Melville's Marginalia Online, now supported by new grants.
Greg Murray, of the University of Virginia Library, talked about his work as a programmer for their digital collections.
Following the presentations, participants worked in groups to discuss major themes of the projected rooms in MEL: War, Art, and the Sea. These working groups focused on ideas for workspaces for scholarship, interactive editing, and play. Among the ideas that emerged from the discussions were a War Room (mapping Melville's Civil War, showing historical artifacts and weaponry); a virtual tour of a whaling ship; and an art gallery displaying the works Melville would have known.
Work is also moving ahead on a Melville Remix tool, which would feature sources and adaptations of Moby-Dick.
MEL Camp 2 participants
Back row, L to R: Christopher Sten, Wesley Raabe, Tony McGowan, Wyn Kelley, Timothy Marr,
Robert Sandberg, Brett Barney, Robert Wallace, Greg Murray, John Wenke.
Front row, L to R: Dennis Berthold, Mary K. Bercaw-Edwards, Les Harrison, Christopher Ohge, Steven
Olsen-Smith, Marta Werner, John Bryant, Kenneth Price.
Photo courtesy of Wyn Kelley
For more photos of MEL Camp 2, click here.
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.