Herman Melville - Pittsfield, MA
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 42° 24.924 W 073° 14.914
18T E 644104 N 4697385
A plaque, mounted on a beveled granite block, honoring author Herman Melville is located outside Arrowhead, his home in Pittsfield, MA
Waymark Code: WMJ088
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 09/04/2013
Views: 4
Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819. As a young man Melville had wanderlust and went to sea, first across the Atlantic Ocean then, in 1841, on the whaling ship Acushnet across the Pacific Ocean. He joined the crew of the USS United States for a return trip to Boston. His experiences as a seaman inspired his novels Typee, Omoo and White-Jacket.
In 1847 Melville married, lived for a short time in new York City then moved to Pittsfield, MA in 1850. It was here in a farm house he called Arrowhead that Melville wrote his greatest novel the allegorical masterpiece Moby Dick. Herman Melville lived here for 13 years.
Melville also wrote poetry that was published in later life. He wrote Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War in 1866 and published an the epic-length verse, Clarel, in 1876. His second great novel Billy Budd was published after his death.
A bronze plaque outside his Pittsfield residence, Arrowhead, contains an image of a sailing ship and is inscribed:
ARROWHEAD
FOR THIRTEEN YEARS (1850-1863)
THE HOME OF
HERMAN MELVILLE
1819 — 1891
MARINER AND MYSTIC
AUTHOR OF MOBY DICK (WRITTEN IN PITTSFIELD)
AND OTHER TALES OF THE SEA.
“MOBY DICK IS AMONG THE FEW VERY
NOTABLE LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF
AMERICAN LITERATURE”
RAYMOND M. WEAVER