Monday, November 14, 2011

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: November 14, 1851: Moby-Dick published

 November 14, 1851: Moby-Dick published


On this day in 1851, Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville about the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, is published by Harper & Brothers in New York. Moby-Dick is now considered a great classic of American literature and contains one of the most famous opening lines in fiction: "Call me Ishmael." Initially, though, the book about Captain Ahab and his quest for a giant white whale was a flop.

Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819 and as a young man spent time in the merchant marines, the U.S. Navy and on a whaling ship in the South Seas. In 1846, he published his first novel, Typee, a romantic adventure based on his experiences in Polynesia. The book was a success and a sequel, Omoo, was published in 1847. Three more novels followed, with mixed critical and commercial results. Melville's sixth book, Moby-Dick, was first published in October 1851 in London, in three volumes titled The Whale, and then in the U.S. a month later. Melville had promised his publisher an adventure story similar to his popular earlier works, but instead, Moby-Dick was a tragic epic, influenced in part by Melville's friend and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, neighbor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose novels include The Scarlet Letter.

After Moby-Dick's disappointing reception, Melville continued to produce novels, short stories (Bartleby) and poetry, but writing wasn't paying the bills so in 1865 he returned to New York to work as a customs inspector, a job he held for 20 years.

Melville died in 1891, largely forgotten by the literary world. By the 1920s, scholars had rediscovered his work, particularly Moby-Dick, which would eventually become a staple of high school reading lists across the United States. Billy Budd, Melville's final novel, was published in 1924, 33 years after his death.


American Revolution
1776 : Benjamin Franklin takes sides
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/benjamin-franklin-takes-sides

Automotive
2006 : Last day for Texas' celebrated drive-in Pig Stands
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/last-day-for-texas-celebrated-drive-in-pig-stands

Civil War
1862 : Lincoln approves Burnside's plan to capture Richmond
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-approves-burnsides-plan

Cold War
1951 : United States gives military and economic aid to communist Yugoslavia
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-gives-military-and-economic-aid-to-communist-yugoslavia

Crime
1986 : Ivan Boesky confesses to illegal stock trading activity
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ivan-boesky-confesses-to-illegal-stock-trading-activity

Disaster
1985 : Volcano erupts in Colombia and buries nearby towns
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/volcano-erupts-in-colombia-and-buries-nearby-towns

General Interest
1969 : Apollo 12 lifts off
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/iapollo-12i-lifts-off
1982 : Walesa released from jail
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/walesa-released-from-jail

Hollywood
1941 : Cary Grant stars in Hitchcock's Suspicion
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cary-grant-stars-in-hitchcocks-suspicion

Literary
1851 : Moby-Dick is published
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/moby-dick-is-published

Music
1900 : American classical composer Aaron Copland is born in Brooklyn, New Yor
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-classical-composer-aaron-copland-is-born-in-brooklyn-new-york

Old West
1882 : Franklin Leslie kills Billy "The Kid" Claiborne
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/franklin-leslie-kills-billy-the-kid-claiborne

Presidential
1959 : Kennedy publishes article on television and American politics
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kennedy-publishes-article-on-television-and-american-politics

Sports
1970 : Plane crash devastates Marshall University
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/plane-crash-devastates-marshall-university

Vietnam War
1965 : Major battle erupts in the Ia Drang Valley
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/major-battle-erupts-in-the-ia-drang-valley
1967 : Marine general killed in Vietnam
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marine-general-killed-in-vietnam
1972 : Nixon promises Thieu that U.S. will continue to support South Vietnam
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nixon-promises-thieu-that-us-will-continue-to-support-south-vietnam

World War I
1914 : Ottoman Empire declares a holy war
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ottoman-empire-declares-a-holy-war

World War II
1940 : Germans bomb Coventry
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-bomb-coventry

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