Hofstra University prof, Dr. John Bryant, has received a $175,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to launch the Melville Electronic Library (MEL) – a virtual place where “scholars, critics, students, and general readers, will have unprecedented access to a searchable collection of interlinked versions of Melville’s manuscripts, print texts, sources, art works, and other research and secondary materials.”
The entire project will supposedly take FIFTEEN YEARS. Seriously, though, in 15 years I hope we’ve got something like a million times better than the current internet. I wanna be hunting virtual f’ing whales with virtual Herman Melville and landing in Tahiti with Bligh and Spencer Christian (NOT to steal breadfruit trees).
Anyways, Dr. Bryant “is one of the world’s foremost experts on Herman Melville.” He’s also a proponent of something he calls “fluid texts” – “which will enable users to compare varying manuscript stages and published versions of Melville’s writings.” E-technology will best make this dream a reality.
Within two years, though, Moby Dick, Billy Budd, and Battle-Pieces will be available via MEL.
Recent Comments