500 pages, 150+ illustrations 71⁄2 × 91⁄4 in. 19.05 × 23.495 cm. Hat & Beard Press is celebrating Herman Melville's 200th birthday with a full-color edition of Moby-Dick, illustrated by the rediscovered art of Gilbert Wilson. Film director John Huston declared him "a brilliant artist and one of America's foremost painters." Pearl S. Buck sponsored an exhibition of his work in New York, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote about his work in her newspaper column. Yet, for most of his life, artist Gilbert Brown Wilson (1907-1991) lived in relative obscurity, despite a critical splash in the 1930s. He sacrificed financial security for artistic freedom. An acolyte of Diego Rivera and an assistant to Rockwell Kent, Wilson became recognized for his gargantuan murals at Indiana State University and Antioch College, and for the controversy sparked by his "social realist" style. But Moby-Dick became Wilson's lifetime obsession, for which he produced more than 200 paintings and drawings, and helped inspire Huston's 1956 film adaptation starring Gregory Peck and Orson Welles. This large, coffee-table book will showcase never-before-published artwork, notes, and meditations on the novel--drawing from unprecedented access to Wilson's estate. The book will also provide a platform for the international art community to reassess and rediscover this remarkable man and his work. The edition pays homage to Melville's original text, while breathing new life into the story via Wilson's vibrant, timeless artwork. Critics have called Moby-Dick "the most ambitious book ever conceived by an American writer"--and Wilson's version will be the most ambitious illustrated edition of that book. Edited by Robert K. Elder Images courtesy of the Swope Art Museum.
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, the work's genre classifications range from late Romantic to early Symbolist. Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a "Great American Novel" was established only in the 20th century, after the centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself,
Our intrepid narrator, a former schoolteacher famously "called" Ishmael-is that actually his name?- signs up as sailor on a whaling voyage to cure a bout of depression/being a misanthropic dirtbag. On his way to find a ship in Nantucket, he meets Queequeg, a heavily tattooed South Sea Island harpooneer just returned from his latest whaling trip. Ishmael and Queequeg become best buds and roommates almost immediately. Together, they sign up for a voyage on the Pequod, which is just about to start on a three-year expedition to hunt sperm whales.On board the Pequod, Ishmael meets the mates-honest Starbuck, jolly Stubb, and fierce Flask-and the other harpooneers, Tashtego and Daggoo. The ship's commander, Captain Ahab, remains secluded in his cabin and never shows himself to the crew. Uh, that's ominous. Oh well. The mates organize the beginning of the voyage as though there were no captain.Just when Ishmael's curiosity about Ahab has reached a fever pitch, Ahab starts appearing on deck-and we find out that he's missing one leg. When Starbuck asks if it was Moby Dick, the famous White Whale, that took off his leg, Ahab admits that it was and forces the entire crew to swear that they will help him hunt Moby Dick to the ends of the earth and take revenge for his injury. They all swear.After this strange incident, things settle into a routine on board the good ship Pequod. While they're always on the lookout for Moby Dick, the crew has a job to do: hunting sperm whales, butchering them, and harvesting the sperm oil that they store in huge barrels in the hold.Ishmael takes advantage of this lull in plot advancement to give the reader lots (lots) of contemporary background information about whale biology, the whaling industry, and sea voyages. The Pequod encounters other ships, which tell them the latest news about the White Whale. Oh yeah, and everyone discovers that Ahab has secretly smuggled an extra boat crew on board (led by a mysterious, demonic harpooneer named Fedallah) to help Ahab do battle with Moby Dick once they do find him.Over the course of more than a year, the ship travels across the Atlantic, around the southern tip of Africa, through the Indian Ocean, among the islands of southeast Asia, into the Sea of Japan, and finally to the equator in the Pacific Ocean: Moby Dick's home turf.Despite first mate Starbuck's misgivings and a variety of bad omens (all the navigational instruments break, a typhoon tries to push the ship backwards, and the Pequod encounters other ships that have lost crewmembers to Moby Dick's wrath), Ahab insists on continuing to pursue his single-minded revenge quest. In a parody of the Christian ceremony of baptism, he goes so far as to dip his specially forged harpoon in human blood-just so that he'll have the perfect weapon with which to kill Moby Dick.Finally, just when we think the novel's going to end without ever seeing this famous White Whale, Ahab sights him and the chase is on. For three days, Ahab pursues Moby Dick, sending whaling boat after whaling boat after him-only to see each one wrecked by the indomitable whale. Finally, at the end of the third day, the White Whale attacks the ship itself, and the Pequod goes down with all hands.Even while his ship is sinking, Ahab, in his whaling boat, throws his harpoon at Moby Dick one last time. He misses, catching himself around the neck with the rope and causing his own drowning/strangling death.The only survivor of the destruction is Ishmael, who lives to tell the tale because he's clinging to the coffin built for his pal Queequeg when the harpooneer seemed likely to die of a fever.
Science fiction, fantasy, comics, romance, genre movies, games all drain into the Cultural Gutter, a website dedicated to thoughtful articles about disreputable art-media and genres that are a little embarrassing. Irredeemable. Worthy of Note, but rolling like errant pennies back into the gutter. The Cultural Gutter is dangerous because we have a philosophy. We try to balance enthusiasm with clear-eyed, honest engagement with the material and with our readers. This book expands on our mission with 10 articles each from science fiction/fantasy editor James Schellenberg, comics editor and publisher Carol Borden, romance editor Chris Szego, screen editor Ian Driscoll and founding editor and former games editor Jim Munroe.
It was an obsession that would destroy them all... On a cold December night, a young man called Ishmael rents a room at an inn in Massachusetts. He has come from Manhattan to the north-east of America to sign up for a whaling expedition. Later that same night, as Ishmael is sleeping, a heavily tattooed man wielding a blade enters his room. This chance meeting is just the start of what will become the greatest adventure of his life. The next day, Ishmael joins the crew of a ship known as the Pequod. He is approached by a man dressed in rags who warns him that, if he sails under the command of Captain Ahab, he may never come back. Undaunted, Ishmael returns early the next morning and leaves for the high seas. For the crew of the Pequod, their voyage is one of monetary gain. For Captain Ahab, however, it is a mission driven by hatred, revenge, and his growing obsession with the greatest creature of the sea.
The hunt for a gigantic whale. You can't get more exciting than that. Herman's Melville's "Moby Dick" has long been considered one of the greatest American novels ever wrote. If you want to introduce your children to the classic work, then this is the perfect book. It takes the structure and plot of Melville’s work and puts it into a language and format that younger kids will understand. KidLit-O’s newest series helps introduce younger readers to classic works of literature by retelling them as beginning reader chapter books.
In time for the 200th anniversary of author Herman Melville's birth, this graphically arresting, beautifully rendered pop-up retelling of Moby-Dick is a wonder to behold. Rich linocut artworks portray ten key chronological moments from the story in shadowbox-style pop-ups that reward time spent poring over the details and offer fresh perspectives on the classic. Each spread is accompanied by select quotations from the book, while brief page notes provide additional context for the depicted plot moments. With striking typography presented in an authentic broadsheet style, here is an adventure in book craft and storytelling.
Sailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler the Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale that on the previous whaling voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. This is a special collector's edition, limited print run.
In this adaptation of Melville's masterpiece, McCaughrean recounts the tale of the obsessed Captain Ahab, as he pursues the great white whale--a creature as vast and dangerous as the sea itself. 55 illustrations, 25 in color.
