Aug. 1： Herman Melville, Cosimo de' Medici； 黃振捷(Gin Wong)

黃振捷(Gin Wong)

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Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee, a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick. Wikipedia

Born: August 1, 1819, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Died: September 28, 1891, New York City, New York, United States

Plays: Billy Budd

Movies: Moby Dick, Pola X, Billy Budd, Beau Travail, MORE

Quotes

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.

D.H. Lawrence described Herman Melville's life thus: “A mother: a gorgon. A home: a torture box. A wife: a thing with clay feet. Life: a sort of disgrace”

On the face of it, Melville's life was marked by failure

The novelist was born on August 1st 1819

ECONOMIST.COM

Penguin Classics 新增了 2 張相片。

Happy 198th birthday to that most essential of American novelists, Herman Melville! Born in New York City in 1819, Melville published his first book, TYPEE, in 1846. A mix of fiction and his own experiences in the South Pacific, TYPEE was actually Melville's most popular book during his own lifetime.

The novel we mainly remember him for today, MOBY-DICK, was a commercial failure at the time of its publication (1851). Though he continued writing, he never regained the popularity of his earlier, travel-oriented books, and he died in 1891.

His star began to rise again a few decades later, as new readers discovered his work and the canonization of MOBY-DICK (along with the short stories "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and "Benito Cereno") began in earnest.

Oxford World's Classics 新增了 3 張相片。

#OnThisDay in 1819 Herman Melville was born in New York City. After his father's business failure and death in 1832 Melville left school and was largely an autodidact, devouring Shakespeare, the King James Bible, and 17th-century meditative writers such as Sir Thomas Browne, as well as the numerous historical, anthropological, and technical works which he used to supplement his experiences when he wrote. After sailing as a ‘boy’ on a packet to Liverpool in 1839, Melville shipped in 1841 on the whaler Acushnet for the South Seas, where he jumped ship, joined the US navy, and finally returned three years later to begin writing.

"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme." - From Moby Dick

#Didyouknow Herman Melville, who was born #onthisday in 1819, is said to have based Moby-Dick character, Queequeg, on this portrait?

The image is of Kotowatowa, a Maori chief from New Zealand. It was published in 1844 in the 'Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition 1838-1842'. (10001.d volume 2)

"In MELVILLE: A Novel, Giono reads and writes his way into Melville’s experience. The details of the book come not from correspondence, journals, or other historical materials but rather from the fictional adventures that Melville depicted."

Foreign Companion: Jean Giono’s “Melville: A Novel” - Los Angeles Review of Books

Adam Fales reviews Jean Giono’s “Melville: A Novel.”

LAREVIEWOFBOOKS.ORG

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Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was an Italian banker and politician, the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. Wikipedia

Born: September 27, 1389, Florence, Italy

Died: August 1, 1464, Villa Medici at Careggi, Florence, Italy

Our quote of the day is from Florentine banker Cosimo de' Medici