“Do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?” - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

In my experience, librarians often feel a kinship with Herman Melville. How could we not? He begins his opus, Moby-Dick, with an ode to the "poor devil of a Sub-Sub" librarian and goes on to gather cetological minutiae from literature, art, history, and science, like a magpie hunting jewels. He classifies whales by book format: folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo.  Melville himself was a voracious reader, borrowing books from his family, friends and colleagues, the ships on which he traveled, and local libraries, including the Lenox Library and potentially the Astor Library, whose collections later formed the core of The New York Public Library. So, as we approach the 200th anniversary of Melville's birth on August 1st, the Library celebrates his life and enduring influence.

The Library has long served as a key hub for Melville scholarship. Its archival collections document the affairs of Melville's extended family, the Gansevoorts and Lansings, and literary compatriots, including his agent Evert Duyckick and close friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Holdings include correspondence, personal libraries, and manuscripts that contextualize Melville's social networks and situate his authorship within the broader cultural, economic, and social history of New York. 

Like a new generation of magpies, we have brought together highlights from these collections for Herman Melville at The New York Public Library, on display through August 24th on the third floor of the Library's Schwarzman Building.  Those who cannot make it to New York can access some of the Library's Melvilliana through digitized portions of the Gansevoort-Lansing collection, Duyckick family papers, Augusta Melville papers, and Nathaniel Hawthorne collection of papers.  

In describing Transcendentalist and fellow writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, Melville wrote, "I love all men who dive.  Any fish can swim near the surface, but it takes a great whale to go down stairs five miles or more."  So dive in, sub-subs — the Library is here to help you plumb the depths.