Tuesday, June 26, 2012

counting newspaper excerpts from chapter 61 of Moby-Dick, "Stubb Kills a Whale"


Three excerpts from Moby-Dick chapter 61 (each beginning "Start her, start her my men!") found by Richard E. Winslow, III are listed in "Melville Reviews and Notices, Continued"; Leviathan 13.1 (March 2011) at 101:
Bay State [Lynn, Massachusetts], November 27, 1851
Republican Standard [New Bedford, Massachusetts], December 4, 1851
Gloucester News [Massachusetts], December 6, 1851
George Monteiro reports one very early reprinting titled "Killing a Whale" in the Hartford, Connecticut Daily Courant (November 20, 1851); and another one titled "Chasing and Killing a Whale" in the Concord, New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette on December 10, 1851 [update: as first reported by Winslow in Melville Society Extracts 89; see "Herman Melville: Fugitive References (1845-1922)" in Resources for American Literary Study, Vol. 33 (New York: AMS Press, 2010), 27].

Searching newspaper archives at genealogybank.com I find more excerpts from chapter 61 of Moby-Dick:

"A Whale Chase," Massachusetts Spy, November 26, 1851.

"Chasing and Killing a Whale," St. Johnsbury, Vermont Caledonian, December 20, 1851.  Introduced, as in the New Hampshire Patriot, as follows:
Mr. Herman Melville, author of “Typee” and “Omoo,” has given to the public a new sea story, entitled “Moby Dick,” describing a marvelous cruise by a New England whaling monomaniac after the aforesaid “Moby Dick,” a great white whale, the fabulous leviathan of the sailors. Mr. M. in the course of his book lets us in to all the realities of actual whaling as minutely and faithfully as sea author has ever done. Subjoined will be found a highly interesting passage relating to the capture and death of the whale.

"Perils of Whaling," Cleveland, Ohio Plain Dealer, January 09, 1852.

Searching at Old Fulton NY Post Cards, I find reprintings with Stubb's exciting chase in two influential New York newspapers:

Among other excerpts, the review of Moby-Dick in the New York Daily Tribune (November 22, 1851) quotes chapter 61 with Stubb's chase in full under the head of "KILLING A WHALE."

"Whale Killing," New York Evening Post, November 29, 1851.

New York Evening Post - November 29, 1851

That makes ten, so far--and counting still, since more reviews of Moby-Dick (the longer ones, long known and reprinted in Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Brian Higgins and Hershel Parker) probably give the same excerpt from chapter 61.

UPDATE: For excerpts from "Stubb Kills a Whale" beginning "Start her, start her my men," add these three:

"Stirring Adventures," "Capture of a Whale" in The New England Farmer [Boston], November 29, 1851 (Melville Society Extracts 106)
"A Whale Chase, Nantucket Weekly Mirror, November 29, 1851 
"KILLING A WHALE," Columbus Daily Ohio State Journal, December 1, 1851 
 plus one with a longer extract from chapter 61:
"Whale Killing" in the Montpelier Vermont Patriot and State Gazette, January 8, 1852 (Extracts 106)
Also, consulting Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews, ed. Brian Higgins and Hershel Parker (Cambridge University Press, 1995; paperback 2009), I find the Stubb episode reprinted in two London reviews of Moby-Dick (that's in addition to the excerpt in the long New York Tribune review):
London Atlas, November 8, 1851 (see Contemporary Reviews, page 366); and
London Morning Chronicle, December 20, 1851 (Contemporary Reviews, 406)
Making a grand total of sixteen known newspaper excerpts with the Stubb episode from chapter 61 of Moby-Dick; of which six begin "Start her, start her my men!"

STILL LATER - Added 07/24/2017:

  • Westchester Herald [Ossining, New York] December 16, 1851
  • Grand River Times [Grand Haven, Michigan], January 6, 1852
Found on Newspapers.com

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