In February of 1964, in my freshman American Literature Survey Class, I first encountered Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Our teacher was Daniel Hoffman, a worthy poet, critic, and educator who'd go on to publish two dozen books, one of which, Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe was nominated for the National Book Award. All in all, a serious customer. At that time, furthermore, he was 41 years of age, at th... [more]

For the past five years the New Bedford Whaling Museum has been sponsoring a scrimshaw show in conjunction with their annual Scrimshaw Symposium. This year they opened the show up to include a wider range of maritime antiques and books, and I figured “Why not?” I thought there was a fair chance that the show, which was taking place in the lobby of the museum, would be clogged with clueless tou... [more]

After a friend showed Thom Adorney, a retired Colorado schoolteacher, an antique whaling journal written by an ancestor in the 1850s, Mr. Adorney had a great idea: why not give students at the local Ute Meadows Elementary School the unique opportunity to unlock history for themselves? For over a year now, that's exactly what students have been doing. The entire journal was photographed and student... [more]