2026 MDM Livestream

This year's live video from the Marathon is scheduled to start on Jan. 3 at 11:15AM. Point your browser to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbM6gDluT5k.

Note: MDM31 is set for January 8-10, 2027. 

Forgotten but not gone...

One starts things moving without a thought of how to stop them. In order to speak. One starts speaking as if it were possible to stop at will. It is better so. The search for the means to put an end to things, an end to speech, is what enables the discourse to continue. ...But not so fast. First dirty, then make clean.
      - The Unnameable, Samuel Beckett

Covid aversion kept us away from the last three MDMs, but Michael Lapides & co. saw to it that the proceedings were broadcast and archived on YouTube. Many thanks for that!

Of the 2023 marathon reading (MDM27) I can say: some media figures are great readers, and some are less so.

Arun Rath, whose voice will be familiar to listeners of WGBH, could have read the entire book with no complaint from me. (Unlike the "volunteer" readers, the "invited" readers who open each MDM have a very good idea of the chapter, if not the passage, they will be reading. How can so many come so ill-prepared?)

No matter, no matter, let us go on as if all arose from one and the same weariness...
      - Molloy, Samuel Beckett

This just in: Michael J. Bobbitt (playwright, director, choreographer, and Executive Director of the Mass. Cultural Council) will be this year's opening reader.

MDM25 "post-mortimising"

The 2021 MDM was, of course, scaled down due to the ongoing global pandemic. All the readings were streamed on YouTube. Once I realized that the readings were not "live," I pretty much tuned out the entire event. Oh, ye foolish! My favorite part of recent MDMs, the Chats with the Melville Scholars, was done live over Zoom — and I missed it! (Future researchers will study the phenomenon of pandemic-induced stupidity.)

Luckily, the entire MDM, with the "Chat," the Friday night lecture by Steven Olsen-Smith, and a presentation by Michael Dyer, is available on YouTube. (Watch them before they're gone. "Google is not in the preservation business.")

To this MDM veteran, the slick, new opening video is certainly attention-grabbing. We fly up above Johnny Cake Hill, then track the actor through the museum to the Lagoda, where he watches a video of Museum President Amanda McMullen welcoming viewers. I'll be looking this year to see what video magic is used to insert the 2022 logo on his TV.

Note that this year's Scholar Chat will again be live via Zoom. The schedule and link are on the museum's MDM page, along with the video stream of readers. Readings begin Saturday, 1/8/22, at 11:30 AM Eastern time.

MDM24 "post-mortemising"

The 2021 MDM is just days away. Let's get MDM24 (Jan. 3-5, 2020) into the historical record now. 

January 2020. We crowded into the Whaling Museum to share another Moby-Dick Marathon. In the innocence of our hearts! (This year's MDM25 will have some folks reading from the museum, but most will stream their reading from home. With luck and discipline, the 2022 MDM will be a joyful, in-the-flesh reunion.) [Update, 1/10/21: All the 2021 readings were recorded before MDM25, most at the reader's home, then edited by the Museum into ten (long) streaming videos.]

MDM24 unfurled along the lines of previous years. Attendance seemed slightly down from 2019's banner year, but I can find no reports. Ten-time Dutch reader, Tjitske Zwerver, commented on the number of new faces. Were they lured to the reading by the recent bicentennial of Melville's birth, or was it the not-frigid weather and complete absence of snow? 

It was good to see the regulars—people I know only from repeated MDMs. Barbara from Pittsfield was about to retire from her law office job to become a volunteer at the Berkshire Athenaeum, helping to organize Hershel Parker's archive of Melville material(!); "dozens of boxes." [See here & here.] Jessica Kent passed on a link to her Harvard Master's thesis, "That Unfailing Comfort Is, It's All Predestinated": Ishmael's Calvinist Journey in Moby-Dick. Much appreciated (even if the contemplation of Calvinism makes me despair for humanity).

New at MDM24:

• A photobooth (free) for a souvenir strip of snapshots.
• A Voyage Passport. Every four hours you collect a stamp at reader check-in. If you finish the MDM with all six stamps, you are awarded a very generous gift bag. (Much more humane than the previous "stay awake for the full 25 hours" criterion.)

The museum dedicated the 2020 MDM to David Blanchette of West Wareham, who died October 19, 2019. You've seen his artwork on marathon buttons and signage. He was author and illustrator of children's books, including Xico. (Follow the link; you'll recognize his drawing style.)

Edward Camara Jr. of Mattapoisett died November 17, 2019. He was honored on the Reader Program as "a stalwart supporter of this event, who missed only one Marathon between 1997 and 2019." 

10:00 AM
Stump the Scholars, with emcee Capt. Michael Taylor (substituting for Michael Dyer), and scholars from Teaching Melville: Timothy Marr (UNC), Jennifer Baker (NYU), Christopher Sten (George Washington U.), Robert K. Wallace (U. of Kentucky), Mary K. Bercaw Edwards (U. of Conn. & Mystic Seaport), and Jeff Markman (New Trier H.S., substituting for Wyn Kelley).

Among other things, we learned that after the 1866 fire in the Seamen's Bethel, the pews were reoriented to face away from the street, and the current blunt steeple was added, replacing a bird-watching stand(?)!

Noon

A familiar face opened Loomings: Jared Bowen, Executive Arts Editor at WGBH. He set a suitably reverential tone with, "Call. Me. Ishmael." Marathoners applauded his fine reading.

Senator Edward Markey continued Chapter 1, which was particularly resonant given that articles of impeachment were about to be submitted to the Senate.

...Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States...

New Bedford's mayor customarily reads The Street, Chapter 6. Mayor Jon Mitchell did the honors.

1:20 PM

Once more unto the Bethel, dear friends, once more ...for Chapters 7-9.

1:45 PM

While the action was away in the Bethel, there was time to admire the "set design" by Michael Lapides, Director of Digital Initiatives. Note the glow in the faux fireplace, the objects on the mantel and table, the whaling print, the lamp on the desk,... I'll bet it looked great on the video stream. (Sadly, the video has disappeared from YouTube. "Google is not in the preservation business.")

This year, readers had a choice of armchair or lectern.

2:30 PM

Chat with Melville Scholars (seen here just breaking up) —

These "chats" grow larger every year, and with good reason. Lots of grist here, seeded by members of the Melville Society. What will the focus of M-D be for the 21st century? Melville as "memorialist" of the whaling industry. Ahab is to M-D as Dr. Frankenstein is to his monster. Was Ahab based on Charles Wilkes?

4:00 PM

Solid attendance through the afternoon.

10:50 PM

On to The Town Ho's Story as the crowd wanes.

1:21 AM

Well into the marathon's Graveyard Shift.

3:50 AM

The readers continue while Watch Officers confer on the line-up.

5:40 AM

Early risers drift in while Pip jumps from the boat (Chapter 93).

8:15 AM

Beautiful sunny day.
Momentum starts to build.

10:00 AM

The second Chat with Melville Scholars —

Recommended books: Ahab's Rolling Sea, Richard J. King; Trying Leviathan, D. Graham Burnett; Toni Morrison's essay on Melville in The Source of Self-Regard. M-D Chapter 61 changes Ishmael's view of the whale. Lemuel Shaw as surrogate father to Melville, and some connection to Captain Vere in Billy Budd. Melville got books from the Boston Athenaeum through Shaw. Was M. "high on something" when he wrote Tartarus of Maids?

12:35 PM

Full house for the finale. 

The female readers of the last chapters were a pleasant respite from the hoarse growl usually voiced for Ahab.

Sperm Whale Oil [Museum Collection 2016.85]

All Astir...

Keep an eye on the Whaling Museum website, YouTube channel, and Facebook page during this shelter-in-place period! The museum staff are busy making their collection available on the Web, often with expert interpretation.

 

A Virtual MDM

Beginning Friday, April 17, at 5 P.M. Eastern, the museum will make available a one-hour video segment from a recent Moby Dick Marathon. The closing chapters will be read by folks currently in "lockdown" at home.

Tours of the Collection

The Museum from Home series is an ever-expanding set of resources for students and parents.

• Check out the "Educator Website" video series.
• Go behind-the-scenes with the "Collections Show & Tell" series.
• Search the museum's entire trove of objects and photographs. Scrimshaw knuckle-duster anyone?

The current exhibition of Dutch maritime paintings, De Wind is Op!, is now behind closed doors, but a wealth of material is available online:

• The entire (4.5 hour) opening symposium.
• A tour of the works, with commentary by Chief Curator, Christina Connett Brophy.
• The complete exhibition catalog(!). Grab a copy while you can.

If you have wandered the museum during the Marathon's "Graveyard Shift" and browsed the items in Turner Gallery (where we used to read Cetology), you'll want to watch these videos guided by Akeia de Barros Gomes, Curator of Social History; and Michael Dyer, Curator of Maritime History.

Speaking of Maritime Museums

The Mystic Seaport Museum offers its share of digital treasures, including a cool "Behind the Scenes" series.

 

 Other Avenues

• Explore the Melville Society website, particularly the set of blogs by MDM pillar Robert K. Wallace.
• Get lost in the Melville Electronic Library and Melville's Marginalia.
• Search through Melville's papers at Harvard's Houghton Library, like his letter to Hawthorne dated Aug. 13, 1852. (Zoom in and try to decipher his scrawl.)

In your "insular Tahiti"...

These recordings of M-D could ease the monotony of isolation. All are available as free, downloadable .mp3 files. So load up your audio device of choice for those home-bound sessions of low-impact aerobics.

• Both Librivox and Project Gutenberg offer the same reading by Stewart Wills. He's a good, clear speaker, not overly dramatic. Slightly annoying is the 15-second intro to each file: "This is a Librivox recording, ..." There are 44 .mp3 files, including Etymology and Extracts. The Librivox site lets you download all the recordings in a single .zip file (677 MB); on the Gutenberg site, you can only download each file separately. (Scroll down the Gutenberg page to see the files in .mp3 format.)
• The recordings of the Moby Dick Big Read were posted in weekly installments back in 2013 (and duly reviewed). The drivers of this project, Angela Cockayne and Philip Hoare, recruited as readers prominent actors, authors, and artists; as well as TV/radio hosts, scientists, sailors, students, and a Prime Minister. The voices are varied, and nearly all the readings are top-notch. (Tilda Swinton reading Loomings is refreshingly unexpected.) You have to download each of the 136 chapters separately (no Etymology or Extracts), via the "down arrow" icon at the top-right corner of the player.

One caveat: All of these readings are from some copy of M-D that does not include the corrections made (by Hayford, Parker, and Tanselle) for the 1988 Northwestern-Newberry edition (discussed previously).

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Whaling Museum closed through March 27

The Whaling Museum just announced that it will close immediately due to "the growing concerns related to the coronavirus."

The Museum plans to remain shuttered to the public through March 27, 2020. Consult the Museum's website for updates.

Think of the fevers, yellow and bilious! Beware of the horrible plague!
- Chapter 71

...a time to hunker down with a good book.

Sunspots & Whale Strandings

Biologists have already demonstrated that many animals can navigate by somehow sensing Earth’s magnetic field lines. Gray whales, which migrate over 10,000 miles a year through a featureless expanse of blue, might be relying on a similar hidden sense.
        - New York Times, 25 Feb. 2020

The Times article quoted above summarizes a study published in Current Biology; a collaboration of Duke University biologists and an astronomer from Chicago's Adler Planetarium. The research looks at strandings of healthy gray whales, chosen because they have "one of the longest migrations of any mammal, an extensive history in the stranding database, and [are] near-shore migrator[s]." (Near-shore is where "small navigation errors increase the risk of stranding.")

Previous studies have correlated these strandings with solar magnetic storms, but were the strandings the result of alterations of the Earth's geomagnetic field, or did the storms somehow "disrupt the animal's receptor itself"?

Examining the influence of climate/season, magnetic field displacement, and radio-frequency noise, the researchers conclude that the whales' navigation errors are "best explained by increases in RF noise rather than alterations to the magnetic field." The analog that comes to mind is headlights of oncoming cars when you're walking at night.

One of the authors, biologist Jesse Granger, notes that such RF noise is not the sole cause of gray whale strandings. Her hope, according to the Times, is "to unlock the secrets of magnetic navigation."

Get Ready (again)!

Updated 12/27/2019 to include video stream and #mobydickmarathon hashtag.

We are now four weeks from the 24th annual Moby-Dick Marathon.

If you're planning your first MDM, you'll find some practical advice in this post from 2011 and in the "Essentials" section at the right of this page. Check out the Whaling Museum's MDM page, too.

For stay-at-homes, a live video stream will commence at 11:30 AM, Saturday.


If you are set to be a Reader, here's a list of uncommon words you might encounter (courtesy of the 2014 NYC MDM).

...and be sure to follow #MDM24 & #mobydickmarathon on Twitter.

Latest News from the Feejees - 11

It had to happen...

 

Enjoying its world premiere in Cambridge, MA, through January 12.

Make sense who may. I switch off.       - What Where

MDM23 "post-mortemising"

Gone but not (completely) forgotten...

Let's stow away January's MDM before the 2020 event is upon us.

MDM23 was one for the books — the bicentennial of Melville's birth was coming in August, the weather was mild (for January), and the roads were clear and dry. The result: "a record crowd." The museum reported "over 1500 through the doors" during the three days. (Ahem, "over 2900" were reported for MDM16.)

Things proceeded along the lines of past MDMs, with the introduction of Stump the Scholars in 2011. That's MDMs number 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22!

10:00 AM
It's "Stump," with MC Michael Dyer of the museum, and scholars Wyn Kelley (M.I.T), Timothy Marr (UNC), Christopher Sten (George Washington U.), Jennifer Baker (NYU), Robert Wallace (U. of Kentucky), and Mary K. Bercaw Edwards (Univ. of Conn & Mystic Seaport).
Michael was feeling generous. At least nine "I Stumped..." buttons were awarded.
Over the years, we in the audience have learned that you can't stump this group with quotidian queries. Our questions have become ever more abstruse, often causing deliberations to devolve into an open, and informative, discussion. That's entertainment!

On the subject of scholars, I hesitate to mention the "Chat with a Melville scholar" sessions — they are in danger of outgrowing the room. Still, if you want to expand your appreciation of Melville, and fill some gaps in your erudition, make a point of dropping in. This is a very patient and generous group of scholars/educators with a wide range of backgrounds and specialties!

11:23 AM - after "Stump"
Familiar faces, and a welcome sighting of Peter Whittemore, HM's g-g-grandson.

Noon
Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, of Boston radio & TV, were introduced and presented with mementos (see below). Jim got to read "Call me..."

The live stream was moved to YouTube this year — better results for viewers, fewer headaches for Michael Lapides & staff.

1:18 PM
New Bedford Mayor, John Mitchell, reading Chapter 6 as is customary.

1:21 PM
To the Seamen's Bethel for chapters 7-9.

9:53 PM - still a decent crowd.
The MDM is always evolving! This year the usual readers' lecterns were replaced by comfy chairs. The atmosphere was less like a religious service and more like a cozy neighborhood book club (or Russell Baker's intros to Masterpiece Theatre).
Sightlines were not great for those in the back. Maybe the museum could raise the readers' area a bit for MDM24?

1:43 AM
The sweet, still heart of the MDM.

6:19 AM
Tjitske, from the Netherlands, reads Chapter 94 in Dutch at her ninth(?) MDM.

Tjitske's audience.
It's just after noon for her friends at home watching the live stream.
(Impossible to discern at this resolution, but that's Ira in the other reader's chair.)

6:41 AM
The museum's Harbor View Gallery is aptly named.

11:02 AM
Who doesn't love a good shipwreck? The audience swells for the dramatic finale.


...Then it's off to the pub to celebrate another fine MDM.

Monday morning...
For safety's sake, get a good night's sleep, then drive home.

Jim Braude sporting his NBWM tie on Monday evening's Greater Boston.

MDM24 is Coming! Reserve your Bethel spot & Reader slot!

Registration opens at 12:01 AM, Nov. 8, for readers at the 24th Moby-Dick Marathon, the Portuguese Marathon, and the Children's Marathon. (MDM24 is Jan. 3-5, 2020.)

You can also enter the drawing for a seat at the historic Seamen’s Bethel, where chapters 7-9 are read/performed.

Don't dally. Registration usually closes within a few weeks.

(Yes, the twin podia are gone, replaced for MDM23 by two comfy chairs.)

Let a hundred flowers blossom - 2019

Other MDMs in 2019

Edited 6/26/19 - Dates for Rosenbach MDM added.
 
For those who may be hesitant to venture to New Bedford in January, here are a few alternatives to note.

April 26-28: The fourth annual Moby-Dick Marathon Reading at the Provincetown public library. This reading is spread over three days, so you can enjoy a bit of springtime in P'town. (Apologies for the late notice.)

June 7-9: Canio's Books in Sag Harbor returns with a multi-day MDM. A raft of events leads up to the marathon, including a talk by Mary K. Bercaw-Edwards on May 4.

July 31-August 1: The 34th(!) annual Moby-Dick Marathon at the Mystic Seaport Museum. This reading takes place aboard the whaleship Charles W. Morgan. Attendance is limited; call to reserve space if staying overnight. August 1 is Melville's 200th birthday—expect a special MDM at Mystic.

August 1-4 ?: The third annual Moby-Dick reading at Arrowhead Farm. This reading is spread over several days, and includes a hike up Monument Mountain. Details haven't been posted yet.

October ?: At the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, promises a "uniquely San Franciscan" MDM. Last done here in 2018. Details not yet posted; see sfmobydickmarathon.org. Commemorates Melville's brief visit to San Fran in 1860.

November 9-10: The Rosenbach Museum repeats its annual (since 2017) MDM at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia. Watch the Rosenbach calendar for details. [Hat-tip to Prof.]

The November New York City MDM was bi-annual for a while, but appears to be in hibernation.

Missed the MDM at the Newberry Library, Jan. 19-20. This does not appear to be an annual event.

Missed the M-D Marathon Read of Virginia, March 21-22. Their Facebook page has links to an archived video stream. This does not appear to be an annual event.

The Nantucket Historical Association had an MDM in 2014. This past February they offered a two-hour Multi-lingual Moby-Dick Reading Event. A full MDM might return some year.

If you can't make it to New Bedford...

MDM23 is now days away. The weather forecast is for chilly, but dry, conditions, so don't miss this opportunity to join the (quiet) celebration.

If this is your first time, check out the Marathon Overview page to get an idea of what you can expect. Links in the "Essentials" section (at right) can help you pack; and find parking, food, and lodgings.

If you can't make it to New Bedford, follow Twitter hashtag #mdm23, and check the Whaling Museum's website for a link to the live video stream. The reading proper will start Saturday at Noon, January 5.

If it's easier for you to get to Chicago, consider attending the Moby-Dick Read-a-Thon, January 19-20, at the Newberry Library.

Japan to Resume Commercial Whaling

photo: New Bedford Whaling Museum Blog

Bob Rocha, Director of Education and Science Programs, sums this up nicely on the Whaling Museum Blog.

Also noted in the New York Times, here.

Norton Critical Editions of Moby-Dick x3

Originally published February 10, 2018;
Edited to append Gansevoort's "Physical Notes."

Norton Critical 1st, 2nd, and 3rd -- Collect 'em all.

I just got the "Third Norton Critical Edition" of Moby-Dick (NCE3).  I had to order it through a third-party seller on Amazon, and it shipped from Europe.  At the moment, it doesn't appear to be available at all on Amazon, whether from Mr. Bezos himself or a third-party seller.  Oddly, even the publisher's website shows only the second edition right now.  A number of sellers at ABE Books (which has become an affiliate of Amazon) are offering it, however.

First, let me say how surprised, pleased, and honored I am to see Gansevoort's (mainly) and my humble efforts mentioned on page 687, in Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Wyn Kelley's essay (written specially for NCE3), "Melville and the Spoken Word."  The essay digs deep below the surface of the Moby-Dick Marathon phenomenon, which is more extensive than even I had realized.  Of all the books that could have inspired so mighty a sound, why Moby-Dick?

Second, I am surprised and pleased to see that, while NCE3 does not have an apparatus as extensive as that of NCE1, the editor, Hershel "Mr. Melville" Parker, has provided a convenient list of emendations, something that was entirely absent from NCE2.  (This is the first Norton Critical Moby-Dick not to be co-edited by Harrison Hayford, who died in 2001, shortly before NCE2 came out.)

Between NCE1 and NCE2, the explanatory footnotes to the text itself were greatly and usefully expanded.  As far as I could tell from a quick spot-check, the footnotes in NCE3 have not changed from those in NCE2 (although a few have been split into multiple notes).  That's all to the good, as far as I'm concerned -- the quantity of footnotes in NCE2 was just right.

This is a new edition because the assortment of goodies at the end of the volume has been switched up, just as with NCE2.   Among the newcomers are Prof. Parker's "Glimpses of Melville as Performer" and six essays under the heading "Moby-Dick in the Twenty-First Century" (where Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Wyn Kelley's entry appears).

But this is only a glimpse of how NCE3's critical caboose differs from that of NCE2.  Though my opinion is not entirely disinterested, all three editions are well worth having.

Norton Critical Editions Moby Dick [NCE2 vs NCE1]

---

Added by Gansevoort, 12/12/2018.

Physical Notes

NCE3 is a "tighter" publication than NCE2. The pages are the same height, but are slightly narrower (by about 3/32"). The font, font size, and leading are identical. (See the Typeface Tally.) The width of the text block on the page is the same; however, top and bottom margins are reduced in NCE3, displaying 51 lines of text per page where NCE2 displayed 50. (The line breaks have changed, too; usually, but not always, rendering the same text in fewer lines.)

The net result is that NCE3 presents Etymology through FINIS in 405 pages vs. NCE2's 421—3.8% fewer pages. Less wood is good, right?

Measuring the thickness of 100 pages in each edition with calipers, the paper stock in NCE3 is about 14% thinner than that of NCE2. (The stock feels almost like bible leaves.) The show-through is about the same in each.

Appreciation

Hershel Parker, now in his eighties, has blogged that NCE3 marks "the end of a long career." The three Norton Critical editions represent over fifty years of rigorous work. Thank you, Mr. Parker.

Not for the squeamish

photo: Wikimedia

The brilliant BBC podcast, Witness, recently posted an interview with a seaman who worked on an industrial whaler in the 1950's/60's—"A personal account of the huge Antarctic industry which left whales on the brink of extinction."

(9 minutes long) Listen or download.

Reserve your Bethel spot & Reader slot!

Registration is open for readers at the Moby-Dick Marathon, the Portuguese Marathon, and the Children's Marathon. You can also enter the drawing for a seat at the historic Seamen’s Bethel, where chapters 7-9 are read/performed.

Don't dally. Registration closes at 5:00 PM EST, November 30.

MDM23 is official!

The 23rd Moby-Dick Marathon is coming, January 4-6. Details are now on the Whaling Museum site.

Save the date. Plan your transportation. Make room reservations.

2019 being the bicentennial of Melville's birth, we can expect something special.

Unknown Melville manuscript found?

Roger Stritmatter, humanities professor at Coppin State University (Baltimore), believes he may have found the manuscript of "a satiric mock-newspaper" penned by Herman Melville.

Read all about it in the Baltimore Sun.

Hat-tip @MelvilleQuotes.