Herman Melville:
The American Writer
Melville has come to be recognized by the world and, belatedly, by Americans, as the great American writer. It wasn’t until the 1920s that was Moby-Dick judged to be an American classic.

Nathaniel Philbrick:
From Nantucket to the Seven Seas
The historian’s worldwide fame came with the publication of In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, one of the most compelling of all whaling stories. (Melville used the Essex as a model for the Pequod in Moby-Dick.)

Building a Poor Man’s Morgan Library
J. Pierpont Morgan devoted himself to making money before he became a serious book collector, so he could afford it. Those of us with more modest means tend to become serious collectors before we can afford it.

Ten Years Ago
Mickey Spillane

Books into Film
The Hurricane, a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall; a film directed by John Ford.