1. 1. Melville in the First Age of Viral Media Ryan Cordell | Northeastern University @ryancordell | ryancordell.org
2. 2. For months previous I had been poring over old New York papers, delightedly perusing the long columns of ship advertisements, all of which possessed a strange, romantic charm to me. Over and over again I devoured such announcements as the following: FOR BREMEN. The coppered and copper-fastened brig Leda, having nearly completed her cargo, will sail for the above port on Tuesday the twentieth of May. For freight and passage apply on board at Coenties Slip. To my young and inland imagination every word in an advertisement like this, suggested volumes of thought. Melville, Redburn (1850)
3. 3. Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE) 17 September 1874
4. 4. Find widely-reprinted texts. I dont know what they were.
5. 5. aligned passages aligned passages aligned passages Text cluster
6. 6. THE LIGHTNING-ROD What grand , irregular tbund thought I , standing on my hearl stone among the Acrocerauni hills , as the scattered bolts boom overhead and crashed down amo : the valleys , every boll followed zigzag iridlations and swift slants sharp rain , which audibly rang li a charge of spear points on my Ic shingled roof. I suppose , thoug that the mountains hereabouts brei and churn up the thunder so that is far more glorious here than on i. plain. Hark ! some one at the do ( Who is this that chooses a time thunder for making calls ? Ai why don't he , man-fashion , use tl knocker instead of making th doleful undertaker's clatter with L list against the hollow panel ? B let him in. Ah , here he come "Good day , sir" an entire strange "Pray be seated. " What is th ; strange looking walking stick 1 carries ? "Aline thunderstorm sir , "Fine ? Awful ! " "You are wet. Stand here on tl hearth before the lire. " "Not for woiIds !
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8. 8. her majesty deares to congratulate the president upon the successful completion of this great intern 1 lions work the ueen desires to congratulate the p esident upon the successful completion of the gre it internaliooal work the queen deiirea to congratulate the president upon the euccetwfal completion of thia great inter tatioral work 1 2 3 Index of 5-grams her majesty deares to congratulate: 1 majesty deares to congratulate the: 1 deares to congratulate the president: 1
9. 9. her majesty deares to congratulate the president upon the successful completion of this great intern 1 lions work the ueen desires to congratulate the p esident upon the successful completion of the gre it internaliooal work the queen deiirea to congratulate the president upon the euccetwfal completion of thia great inter tatioral work 1 2 3 Index of 5-grams to congratulate the president upon: 1, 3 congratulate the president upon the: 1, 3 upon the successful completion of: 1, 2
10. 10. presidents message fellow oihimi of ttu seine nd routt of rprtitntatxtm throughout th yr lino our last meet ing th oountry has been eminently pros perou presidents message ftuov citiztni f iki sttitu and houm of eeprettntativti throughout the year since our laat meat log the conntry has been eminently prosperous presidents message fcuow t li tus of he fs mitt and house of jleprrscnhitim throughout tho year since our meeting tho country bus been eminently prosperous message or the president of the united states throughout the year since our last meeting thocountry has been eminently prosperous 1860-12-06 Fremont journal 1860-12-06 Cleveland morning leader 1860-12-14 The Athens post 1860-12-15 Columbia Democrat & Bloomsburg general advertiser
11. 11. soft answer ny t s arthur ill give him law to his hearts content the scoundrel said mr singleton walking backwards and forwards soft aasffch bv t s arthuit 1 4 ill give him law to his hearts coii ent fhe scoundrel said mr single on walking backwards and forwards soft answer by t s arthur ill ffive him inw to his hearts content the scoundrel said singleton walking bick ward and forward soft answer ey t s arthur ill give him law to his hearts content the scoundrep said singleton walking backward and forward 1841-04-17 Sunbury American 1847-02-05 Anti- slavery bugle 1847-05-04 Somerset herald 1847-07-22 Vermont watchman
12. 12. Daily Gazette and CometDaily Gazette and Comet Memphis Daily AppealMemphis Daily Appeal Highland Weekly NewsHighland Weekly News White Cloud Kansas ChiefWhite Cloud Kansas Chief Marshall County RepublicanMarshall County Republican Sumter BannerSumter Banner Nebraska PalladiumNebraska Palladium Planters' BannerPlanters' Banner Democratic BannerDemocratic Banner Nashville UnionNashville Union IndependentIndependent Middlebury People's PressMiddlebury People's Press M'Arthur DemocratM'Arthur Democrat Squatter SovereignSquatter Sovereign Fayetteville ObserverFayetteville Observer New-York Daily TribuneNew-York Daily Tribune Dayton Daily EmpireDayton Daily Empire Bellevue GazetteBellevue Gazette Nebraska AdvertiserNebraska Advertiser Fremont JournalFremont Journal Rutland HeraldRutland Herald National RepublicanNational Republican International Magazine of Literature, Art, and ScienceInternational Magazine of Literature, Art, and Science Loudon Free PressLoudon Free Press PolynesianPolynesian Gallipolis JournalGallipolis Journal Perrysburg JournalPerrysburg Journal Anderson IntelligencerAnderson Intelligencer Somerset HeraldSomerset Herald Athens PostAthens Post SunSun Holmes County FarmerHolmes County Farmer Atlantic MonthlyAtlantic Monthly Holmes County RepublicanHolmes County Republican Scientific AmericanScientific American Wabash ExpressWabash Express North American ReviewNorth American Review Sunbury AmericanSunbury American Glasgow Weekly TimesGlasgow Weekly Times Anti-Slavery BugleAnti-Slavery Bugle Belmont ChronicleBelmont Chronicle Living AgeLiving Age Burlington Free PressBurlington Free Press American MissionaryAmerican Missionary Feliciana DemocratFeliciana Democrat Harper's New Monthly MagazineHarper's New Monthly Magazine Clarksville ChronicleClarksville Chronicle Randolph County JournalRandolph County Journal Emporia NewsEmporia News Cleveland Morning LeaderCleveland Morning Leader Ottawa Free TraderOttawa Free Trader Dakota City HeraldDakota City Herald Tiffin TribuneTiffin Tribune Kansas Herald of FreedomKansas Herald of Freedom Freemen's ChampionFreemen's Champion Dallas HeraldDallas Herald Staunton SpectatorStaunton Spectator Weekly ArizonianWeekly Arizonian Marshall County DemocratMarshall County Democrat St. Cloud DemocratSt. Cloud Democrat Pacific Commercial AdvertiserPacific Commercial Advertiser Vermont PhoenixVermont Phoenix AlleghanianAlleghanian Windham County DemocratWindham County Democrat Juliet SignalJuliet Signal CaledonianCaledonian Vermont WatchmanVermont Watchman Keowee CourierKeowee Courier ExaminerExaminer Edgefield AdvertiserEdgefield Advertiser Red Wing SentinelRed Wing Sentinel American ReviewAmerican Review Jeffersonian RepublicanJeffersonian Republican Daily DispatchDaily Dispatch Western Reserve ChronicleWestern Reserve Chronicle Hancock JeffersonianHancock Jeffersonian Columbia DemocratColumbia Democrat Lewisburg ChronicleLewisburg Chronicle Daily PressDaily Press Jeffersonian DemocratJeffersonian Democrat Raftsman's JournalRaftsman's Journal Clearfield RepublicanClearfield Republican Kansas Weekly HeraldKansas Weekly Herald Putnam's Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science and ArtPutnam's Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science and Art United States Democratic ReviewUnited States Democratic Review Nashville PatriotNashville Patriot Brownlow's Knoxville WhigBrownlow's Knoxville Whig Evening StarEvening Star Hannibal JournalHannibal Journal Home JournalHome Journal Plymouth BannerPlymouth Banner Winchester AppealWinchester Appeal Spirit of the AgeSpirit of the Age Mountain SentinelMountain Sentinel Indiana State SentinelIndiana State Sentinel
13. 13. Memphis Daily AppealMemphis Daily Appeal Highland Weekly NewsHighland Weekly News White Cloud Kansas ChiefWhite Cloud Kansas Chief Marshall County RepublicanMarshall County Republican Democratic BannerDemocratic Banner Middlebury People's PressMiddlebury People's Press M'Arthur DemocratM'Arthur Democrat Fayetteville ObserverFayetteville Observer New-York Daily TribuneNew-York Daily Tribune Nebraska AdvertiserNebraska Advertiser Fremont JournalFremont Journal PolynesianPolynesian Perrysburg JournalPerrysburg Journal s Posts Post Sunbury AmericanSunbury American Glasgow Weekly TimesGlasgow Weekly Times Belmont ChronicleBelmont Chronicle Burlington Free PressBurlington Free Press Emporia NewsEmporia News Cleveland Morning LeaderCleveland Morning Leader Marshall County DemocratMarshall County Democrat mont Watchmanmont Watchman Edgefield AdvertiserEdgefield Advertiser Red Wing SentinelRed Wing Sentinel Daily DispatchDaily Dispatch Jeffersonian DemocratJeffersonian Democrat Nashville PatriotNashville Patriot Evening StarEvening Star Plymouth BannerPlymouth Banner Mountain SentinelMountain Sentinel nelnel
14. 14. Sumter BannerSumter Banner Perrysburg JournalPerrysburg Journal Athens PostAthens Post Glasgow Weekly TimesGlasgow Weekly Times Marshall County DemocratMarshall County Democrat Pacific Commercial AdvertisePacific Commercial Advertise Keowee CourierKeowee Courier Edgefield AdvertiserEdgefield Advertiser Red Wing SentinelRed Wing Sentinel earfield Republicanearfield Republican Nashville PatriotNashville Patriot Evening StarEvening Star Home JournalHome Journal
15. 15. Nashville UnionNashville Union Loudon Free PressLoudon Free Press Somerset HeraldSomerset Herald Holmes County RepublicanHolmes County Republican ry Buglery Bugle Harper's New Monthly MagazineHarper's New Monthly Magazine derder Kansas Herald of FreedomKansas Herald of Freedom ont Phoenixont Phoenix Jeffersonian RepublicanJeffersonian Republican Western Reserve ChronicleWestern Reserve Chronicle Kansas Weekly HeraldKansas Weekly Herald United States Democratic ReviewUnited States Democratic Review
16. 16. The Anecdotal
17. 17. Burlington Free Press (Burlington,VT) Dec. 27, 1850
18. 18. Coconino Sun (Flagstaff,AZ) Nov. 19, 1898 102 reprints 1862-1898
19. 19. Case Study #1 The Lincoln Bump
20. 20. Philadelphia Album (Philadelphia, PA) Aug. 25, 1832 97 reprints 1832-1899
21. 21. Saturday Evening Post (Philadelphia, PA) Jun. 15, 1861 97 reprints 1832-1899
22. 22. Daily Sentinel (Indianapolis, IN) Apr. 22, 1865 97 reprints 1832-1899
23. 23. Case Study #2 Think of The Children
24. 24. WHEN the lessons and tasks are all ended, And the school for the day is dismissed, And the little ones gather around me, To bid me good night and be kissed; O the little white arms that encircle My neck in their tender embrace! O the smiles that are halos of heaven, Shedding sunshine of love on my face!
25. 25. The Children by theVillage Schoolmaster MaysvilleWeekly Bulletin (Maysville, KY) Sep. 22, 1864
26. 26. Public Ledger (Memphis,TN) May 18, 1866 The Children by Charles Dickinson
27. 27. New Orleans Crescent (New Orleans, LA) Aug. 16, 1868 The Children by Charles Dickens
28. 28. Bolivar Bulletin (Bolivar,TN) Sep. 26, 1873 The Children by the late Charles Dickens
29. 29. Vancouver Independent (Vancouver,WA) Feb. 10, 1881 The Children by zombie Charles Dickens
30. 30. Case Study #3 Of Actresses, Prostitutes, & an Editor
31. 31. Dallas Herald (Dallas,Texas) Mar. 23, 1859 Once I was Pure Anonymous
32. 32. The Caledonian (St. Johnsbury,VT) Oct. 20, 1865 The Snow A Fallen Actress
33. 33. Case Study #4 Runaways & Cannibals
34. 34. Ottawa FreeTrader (Ottawa, IL) 17 April 1846
35. 35. The Polynesian (Honolulu) 3 October 1846
36. 36. The Polynesian (Honolulu) 17 October 1846
37. 37. The Polynesian (Honolulu) 14 November 1846
38. 38. The Informational
39. 39. Pacic Commercial Advertiser (Honolulu) 7 August 1856 120 reprints 1853-1899
40. 40. Pacic Commercial Advertiser (Honolulu) 7 August 1856 61 reprints 1854-1890
41. 41. North-Carolina Standard (Raleigh, NC) 26 January 1842 65 reprints 1842-1890
42. 42. Jeffersonian (Stroudsburg, PA) 28 January 1869 138 reprints 1868-1899
43. 43. Burlington Free Press (Burlington, VT) 20 August 1852 81 reprints 1842-1893
44. 44. Ashtabula Weekly Telegraph (Ashtabula, OH) 8 February 1862 136 reprints 1862-1899
45. 45. Juliet Signal (Joliet, IL) 23 May 1848 83 reprints 1848-1896
46. 46. ead. I arose The morn-ing'w- as very much older than the . My opera been to three one alongjin rrel acted on style of nd openjthe s things are tyle of glass at on the roof. on. Not like h we It was chill! uth a merrier d be a merry ssed as 1 was, up ? 1 dan- w stars over- my life, you 1 tried the two. Above n the street. ars overhead he rye!" The They snored. milky way. in that way, sevent3-fiv- e thousand dollars for lands and " the cry is still they come." They are ex- cellent farmers and good citizens and we have ample room for all such. One of there has purchased the extensive Catron prop erty, in Tullahoma. fn addition to all this, the Tennessee Co- lonial and Immigration Company baa made arrangements to locate their first colony here. They have secured upwards of ten thousand acres of land within a radius of five miles of this place, and held a meeting last Satur- day here for the purpose of making the pre- liminary arrangements for locating a large number of immigrants among us. I prc-sub- ie that within a few months we will have plenty Amsterdam, Rotterdam and any other dam dutch among us. We also have plenty of room for the good, industrious, well be- haved German or Swiss citizen. 1 hope that they will root out the unthrifty, thieving " kinky heads " and "ebon skins," that are lying round in their unhealthy dens, and dying with the " dry rot." I would be wil- ling to swamp them for the natives cf any country except Massachusetts or South Car- olina. Sanitary Measures. By reference to the mortuary report which appears elsewhere, it will be seen that two or three deaths have Consistency Out of fashion. Concerning Man. Wonders at homo, by familiarity, cease to excite astonishment; hence it happens that many know but little about the " bouse we live in" the human body. We look upon a man as we do upon a bouse from tho out- side, just as a whole or unit, never thinking of the many rooms, and curious passages and the ingenious internal arrangements of the house, or of the wonderful structure of the man ; the number, variety, intricacy, harmony and adaptation of all hjs parts. In the human skeleton, about the time of maturity, there are one hundred and sixty-fiv-e bones. The muscles arc nearly five hundred in number. The length of the alimentary ca- nal is about thirty-tw- o feet. The amount of blood in an adult is near thirty pounds, or fully one fifth of the en- tire weight The heart is six inches in length and four inches in diameter, and beats seventy times per minute, 4 100 times per hoar; 100,800 times per day ; 36,772,000 times per year; 2,575,440,000 in three score and ten; and at each beat two and a half ounces of blool are thrown out of it, one hundred and Bolivar Bulletin (Bolivar, TN) 15 December 1866 63 reprints 1866-1885
47. 47. Hickman Courier (Hickman, KY) 28 February 1874 69 reprints 1859-1898
48. 48. Weekly Arizonian (Tubac, AZ) 14 April 1859 64 reprints 1851-1894
49. 49. Nashville Union and American 20 September 1854 65 reprints 1854-1889
50. 50. By the way, however, we have learned during our experience in these duties that a newspaper is not to be judged so much by the amount of original matter it contains as by its selections. It requires close reading and scissors! to make up an interesting sheet. North Carolina Weekly Standard (30 April 1853) The editing of a paper consists not in long editorials as much as in a diversity of good selections. Winchester Home Journal (6 May 1858)
51. 51. Grand RiverTimes (Grand Haven, MI) 10 September 1851 99 reprints 1837-1885
52. 52. Melvilles Informational Aesthetic
53. 53. Sunbury American and Shamokin Journal (Sunbury, PA) 30 May 1846
54. 54. The Examiner (Louisville, KY) 1 April 1848
55. 55. Scientic American (NewYork) 31 October 1846
56. 56. Anti-Slavery Bugle (Sunbury, PA) 22 May 1846
57. 57. Jeffersonian Republican (Stroudsburg, PA) 26 July 1849
58. 58. EXTRACTS. " Scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea, when about sunrise a great many Whales and other monsters of the sea, appeared. Among the former, one was of a most monstrous size. * * This came towards us, open-mouthed, raising the waves on all sides, and beating the sea before him into a foam." Tooke's Lucian. " The True History:" " He visited this country also with a view of catching horse- whales, which had bones of very great value for their teeth, of which he brought some to the king. * * * The best whales were catched in his own country, of which some were forty-eight, some fifty yards long. He said that he was one of six who had killed sixty in two days." Other or ether's verbal narrative taken down from his mouth by King Alfred. A. D. 890. " And whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel, that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster's (whale's) mouth, are immediately lost and swallowed up, the sea-gudgeon retires into it in great security, and there sleeps." Montaigne.Apology for Raimond Sebond. "Let us fly, let us fly! Old Nick take me if it is not Leviathan described by the noble prophet Moses in the life of patient Job." Rabelais. " This whale's liver was two cart-loads." Stowe's Annals. " The great Leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like boiling pan." Lord Bacon's Version of the Psalms. " Touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we have received nothing certain. They grow exceeding fat, insomuch that an incredible quantity of oil will be extracted out of one whale." Ibid " History of Life and Death." EXTEAOTS. " And God created great whales." Genesis. " Leviathan maketh a path to shin-5 after him One would think the deep t< be hoary." Job. "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." . Jonah. " There go the ships ; there is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein." Psalms. " In that day, the Lord with his sore, and great, and strong sword, shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent ; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." Isaiah. " And what thing soever besides cometh within the chaos of this monster's mouth, be it beast, boat, or stone, down it goes all incontinently that foul great swallow of his, and perisheth in the bottomless gulf of his paunch." Holland's Plutarch's Morals. " The Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest fishes that are : among which the Whales and Whirlpooles called Balsene, take up as much in length as four acres or arpens of land." Holland's Pliny. EXTRACTS " The sovereignest thing on earth is parmacetti for an inward bruise." King Henry. " Very like a whale." Hamlet. " Which to secure, no skill of leach's art Mote him availle, but to returne againe To his wound's worker, that with lowly dart, Dinting his breast, had bred his restless paine, Like as the wounded whale to shore flies thro' the maine." The Fairie Queen. " Immense as whales, the motion of whose vast bodies can in a peaceful calm trouble the ocean till it boil." Sir William Davenant. Preface to Gondibert. "What spermacetti is, men might justly doubt, since the learned Hosmannus in his work of thirty years, saith plainly, Nescio quid sit." Sir T. Browne. Of Sperma Ceti and the Sperma Ceti Whale. Vide his V. E. " Like Spencer's Talus with his modern flail He threatens ruin with his ponderous tail. *****Their fixed jav'lins in his side he wears, And on his back a grove of pikes appears." Waller's Battle of the Summer Islands. " By art is created that great Leviathan, called a Common- wealth or State(in Latin, Civitas) which is but an artificial man." Opening sentence of Hoboes' 1 s Leviathan. " Silly Mansoul swallowed it without chewing, as if it had been a sprat in the mouth of a whale." Pilgrim's Progress.
59. 59. The skeleton dimensions I shall now proceed to set down are copied verbatim from my right arm, where I had them tattooed; as in my wild wanderings at that period, there was no other secure way of preserving such valuable statistics. But as I was crowded for space, and wished the other parts of my body to remain a blank page for a poem I was then composingI did not trouble myself with the odd inches; nor, indeed, should inches at all enter into a congenial admeasurement of the whale.
60. 60. "Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States. "WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL." "BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN."
61. 61. Conclusions
62. 62. However this narrative of the circumstances attending the fever among the emigrants on the Highland may appear; and though these things happened so long ago; yet just such events, nevertheless, are perhaps taking place today. But the only account you obtain of such events, is generally contained in a newspaper paragraph, under the shipping-head. There is the obituary of the destitute dead, who die on the sea. They die, like the billows that break on the shore, and no more are heard or seen. But in the events, thus merely initialized in the catalogue of passing occurrences, and but glanced at by the readers of news, who are more taken up with paragraphs of fuller flavor; what a world of life and death, what a world of humanity and its woes, lies shrunk into a three-worded sentence! Melville, Redburn (1850)
63. 63. h"p://viraltexts.org Viral Texts Project Thanks: Co-PI: David Smith Graduate Assistants:Abby Mullen, Jonathan Fitzgerald, Kevin Smith Undergraduate Assistants: Sarah Babski, Danielle Gillespie, Laura Eckstein, Nicolette Pire, and J.P.Vangsgaard