Melville Bio

[Scott Badger]

I don't have another Melville bio to add, but, FWIW, I just finished
Nathaniel Philbrick's _In the Heart of the Sea_ which documents the voyage
of the Essex, a Nantucket whaling ship that was sunk by a sperm whale in
1820.  It is around this extraordinary event, so claims Philbrick, that
_Moby Dick_ is woven.  The story of the Essex, though, *begins* with the
sinking.  By the time they were rescued, the surviving crew members had
spent 3 months making their way to the coast of South America in open
whaleboats.  They could have reached the Society Islands in about a third
the time but, because of a superstitious fear of cannibals among all the
south sea islands, the crew opted for the longer voyage to South America.
Ironically, they became cannibals themselves - in the end, drawing lots to
determine the next day's fare.

Finger lickin' good...

Scott