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 membes 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.
Berkshire County Historicl Society's 54th Annual Meeting
Berkshire County Historical Society's 54th Annual Meeting
Pittsfield Country Club
Thursday, May 5, 2016
From the Bershire County Historical Society's announcement:
Join us at the Pittsfield Country Club for the Berkshire County Historical Society's 54th Annual Meeting - with poetry! Delicious food and drink in a beautiful setting.
It will be held Thursday, May 5. Cocktail hour at 5, dinner at 6, program at 7.
The Country Club was formerly a farm owned in the 19th century by the Melvill family (before the "e" was added to the name). Herman Melville visited his Uncle Thomas here as a boy, falling in love with the Berkshires. Here in 1850, Melville began writing "The Whale," which he finished at Arrowhead, re-titling it Moby-Dick.
After dinner and a brief business meeting, we will hear poetry from the new publication from Melville Press: Weeds and Wildings, chiefly: With a Rose or Two. Copies available at the meeting. But if you can't wait, copies may be purchased at the Arrowhead shop or ordered online from Melville Press.
It is a new comprehensive collection of Herman Melville's last poetry and short fiction – principally written during the final years of his life. It is Melville at his most romantic, sentimental and autobiographic; this book let him return in memory to his years at Arrowhead. It was a gift to his wife, Elizabeth Shaw Melville.
Other poetry, by actor/poet Steve Butler, and by writers working at an ongoing workshop at Arrowhead, will be also be featured.
The cost for the dinner at the Pittsfield Country Club is $35/person. Cash bar available. To make your reservations, e-mail melvilleATSYMBOLberkshirehistory.org, call 413.442.1793 x12, or mail a check to the Berkshire Historical Society, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield MA 01201
The image above is from a postcard in the collections of the Berkshire County Historical Society, early 20th century.
For more information visit http://tinyurl.com/hf5whsb
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Calendar
Upcoming Conferences and Events
| 18 Jun 2020 07:30PM - 08:30PM Zoom event: In Bed with Ishmael: Queer Approaches to the Life, Work, and Legacy of Herman Melville |
| 01 Aug 2020 Melville's Birthday |
| 28 Sep 2020 Melville's passing |
| 18 Oct 2020 British Edition of Moby-Dick Published as The Whale |
| 14 Nov 2020 Moby-Dick Published |
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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.