October 18

Herman Melville’s place among the literary lights is secure. Many consider his novel Moby-Dick to be one of the greatest of all American novels. Moby-Dick was published on the 18th in 1851 by Harper’s. Canio’s Bookstore in Sag Harbor, until recently held marathon readings of Moby-Dick over holiday weekends. Plenty of schools make the book required reading in English classes. I’m fairly certain I am not alone in my having once actually started writing something by beginning with “Call me Ishmael”. It’s not as if I wanted to, but my teacher, Jean Brincko, 12th grade English teacher at Brooklyn Tech, said that I had to write a 500 word essay and I came up a few words short. It didn’t help me with that paper and Melville's Moby-Dick didn’t help him much either. Harper’s did a print run of 3000 copies of Moby-Dick and the edition didn’t sell out during Melville’s lifetime. Melville ended his days by dying, on September 28, 1891, alone and all but forgotten. To add insult to injury, The New York Times got his name wrong in the obituary that they ran for him. So remember, if you’re going to write a book, don’t open with “Call me Ishmael” it’s been done to death.