Thanks to Paul for reminding us of this July 2019 New Yorker article, "Herman Melville at Home" about this year's big book author.  The New Yorker can be found at the Library or through or eMagazine collection, located here (also linked to our homepage).

 

A waxy substance that originates as a secretion in whale intestines...

I'm talking about ambergris, of course.  At the end of chapter 91 when Stubb sort of cons the French ship out of their whale carcass, he mines the ambergris which is used to make perfumes.  My first thought was, "Is this for real?" When I looked this up online, it was commonly referred to as "whale vomit."  Which made me very interested to get a look.  Here are some pictures that I found:  

So yes, it is for real and still valuable. 

Help with Terminology

Please let us know if these are at all helpful!

From: Whaling Tools / National Geographic

From: The Essex, columbia.edu

From: Power Moby Dick, the Online Annotation - http://www.powermobydick.com/Moby143.html

And in Other News...

From the Washington Post

Thanks to your fellow reader Tom for sharing this terrific photo and article!  True, it's a humpback, but still...

Listen to this PRI story on Moby-Dick

American Icons

American Icons: ‘Moby-Dick’

Studio 360

August 01, 2019 · 4:00 PM EDT

Producer Julie Burstein

Producer Kerrie Hillman

Article on Toni Morrison by Washington University Professor (and Big Book Summer Read scholar and participant) Dr Rafia Zafar

How Toni Morrison Changed Fiction.

Toni Morrison, 1931 - 2019

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The New York Times

The Wall Street Journal

CNN

The Times of India

Le Monde (Paris)

Berliner Zeitung

The Times (London)

China Daily News

The Japan Times

Egypt Today

SABC News (South Africa)

Buenos Aires News

Happy (belated) 200th, Mr. Melville!

It's true that the 200th anniversary of the birth of Herman Melville was Thursday, August 1, but it's always a good day to celebrate our Moby Dick author.  If you're out of cake, take a few minutes to read two very worthwhile articles published this week:

• Philip Hoare of The Guardian writes that our summer challenge title is the "Mt. Everest of literature" and goes on to explain why it's a mountain worth climbing in Subversive, Queer and Terrifyingly Relevant: Six Reasons Why Moby-Dick Is the Novel for Our Times

• Gabrielle Bellot of Literary Hub gives voice to the difficulties in coming to terms with the motifs of blackness and whiteness we discussed last week in The Literal (and Figurative) Whiteness of Moby Dick

As always, we'd love to read your comments below.