All Astir

Abstract

All Astir . . . Marvelling mild if mortal twice, Here and hereafter, touch a Paradise. “To Ned” G etting to Paradise once, as Melville did when he first went ashore in the Marquesas and Tahiti (or even that reverse-Paradise, the Galápagos), might satisfy someone for a lifetime. Getting to return physically, as he did on the United States, and then imaginatively in his novels and poems, Melville fully comprehended the miracle he had received. Through a similarly miraculous gift your “Extracts” editor, after reading about Melville’s paradises for decades, got to visit them as faculty lecturer on tour with MIT alumni—first in the Galápagos in November, 2008 and then Tahiti in February, 2009. Treading my way gingerly through a lava “Tartarus of clinkers” on Fernandina (Melville’s Narborough Isle) or sailing past the Maatea valley (Melville’s Martair in Tahiti), where he and John Troy briefly cultivated sweet potatoes, I felt the spell of “twice” touching magical realms. The Galápagos trip directly inspired the Melville Society lecture I delivered January 3 at the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s Moby-Dick Marathon. Titled “Crossing the Line and Exploring the Equator in Moby-Dick,” illustrated with maps and pictures of the Offshore Grounds Melville sailed, the talk discussed “the equator as a theme in Moby-Dick but also as a line that Melville traveled, wrote about, and returned to in later writings.” It is hard to convey the deep pleasure of sailing the seas Melville knew, speaking about his books with different readers, and discovering new latitudes in his writings. The sabbatical, in other words, has been a revelation. Likewise, the activities of the Melville Society in the last six months have allowed some members to touch more than once, if not at paradises, then at scenes of fellowship and scholarship within the community of Melville readers. The MLA, always the site of the Executive Committee’s annual meeting, drew an unusually large number of officers to San Francisco in December, 2008. Outgoing President Carolyn Karcher and incoming President Robert Milder joined with Executive Secretary Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, outgoing Treasurer John Matteson, incoming Treasurer Tony McGowan, Melville Society Cultural Project representative Robert K. Wallace, Editor John Bryant, and Associate Editor Wyn Kelley. You will find the reports of the Executive Secretary and Treasurer in this issue. We are grateful for the unstinting devotion, hard work, and service represented in these reports and among all our officers. C 2009 The Authors Journal compilation C 2009 The Melville Society and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. L E V I A T H A N A J O U R N A L O F M E L V I L L E S T U D I E S 89 E X T R A C T S Clockwise from far left: Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, Tony McGowan, Carolyn Karcher, Wyn Kelley, Robert K. Wallace, Robert Milder, John Bryant, and John Matteson. At a festive dinner following the Melville Society panel (see our “MLA Abstracts” in this issue), Mary K. Bercaw Edwards announced the winner of the Hennig Cohen Prize, Matthew Cordova Frankel from the University of Rhode Island. Matthew Cordova Frankel, Cohen Prize winner. 90 L E V I A T H A N A L L A S T I R Melville scholars show that tattooing is not simply an academic subject. Professor Frankel’s article, “Tattoo Art: The Composition of Text, Voice and Race in Melville’s Moby-Dick,” published in ESQ, naturally provoked discussion of tattoos inspired by Melville’s art. More than one person attending the dinner could claim to have acted on this inspiration. We were fortunate to record in the photo above the genial competition that ensued. In January 2009 the Melville Society Cultural Project met in New Bedford with the Whaling Museum’s new director, James Russell, and his hardworking staff. The group were delighted to hear that under James Russell’s new leadership the Museum’s financial picture, organization, attendance, and staff morale have considerably improved. Madelyn Shaw requested input from the MSCP for the projected renovation of the Sperm Whale Gallery, which we provided in succeeding weeks. As Mary K. Bercaw...