{"id":"01KG8AJS5HTVWHSW9G0KWFZEF9","cid":"bafkreihm3fqd7smlpsialmwki2gc5cnt2eau7yjubizhrvb2xqlmgrxngq","type":"frontmatter","properties":{"description":"# Introductory Note\n## Overview\nThis is the \"Introductory Note\" frontmatter of the novel [Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces](arke:01KG8AJ7CG8SS24T79X9YN19QH), extracted from the file [billy_budd.txt](arke:01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY). It appears between the [Title Page and Publication Information](arke:01KG8AJS5VEGSBAMNHWVDV3TSG) and the [CONTENTS](arke:01KG8AJS5VDSWZB22CCVE9XKZ3). This frontmatter provides context for the works included in the volume.\n\n## Context\nThe text was extracted from [billy_budd.txt](arke:01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY), which is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The novel [Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces](arke:01KG8AJ7CG8SS24T79X9YN19QH) is contained within this file.\n\n## Contents\nThe \"Introductory Note\" provides information about the publication history and context of the pieces included in the volume. It notes that \"Billy Budd\" was finished by Herman Melville five months before his death in 1891 but never previously published. It also mentions \"Daniel Orme,\" a sketch omitted from \"Billy Budd,\" and \"The Two Temples,\" which was refused publication in 1854 due to fear of offending religious sensibilities. The note further describes eight sketches written after Melville's retirement in 1886 and states that the volume includes all of Melville’s acknowledged but unreprinted contributions to magazines. The note also explains that the text of previously unpublished material has been printed verbatim from Melville's manuscript, with slight adjustments made for grammar and style where necessary. Finally, it acknowledges the Princeton University Press for allowing the reprinting of two essays from _The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches_.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.673Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"Introductory Note","end_line":94,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:42.596Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Introductory Note","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":62,"text":"                           INTRODUCTORY NOTE\r\n\r\n\r\n‘Billy Budd,’ the title-piece of this volume, is a novel finished by\r\nMelville five months before his death in 1891, and never before\r\npublished. ‘Daniel Orme’ is a sketch ‘omitted from _Billy Budd_.’ The\r\nfourth piece--‘The Two Temples’--was on May 12, 1854, refused by\r\n_Putnam’s Monthly Magazine_ out of a fear of offending the religious\r\nsensibilities of the congregation of Grace Church, New York. This volume\r\nconcludes with eight sketches surviving in manuscript, written, in all\r\nprobability, after Melville’s retirement in 1886, at the age of\r\nsixty-seven, from his post as Inspector of Customs in New York City.\r\nExcept for his letters, journals, and the juvenile ‘Fragments from a\r\nWriting Desk,’ this closes the count of Melville as a writer of prose.\r\nThe rest of the volume comprises all Melville’s contributions to\r\nmagazines that he acknowledged but never reprinted.\r\n\r\nThe text of matter hitherto unpublished has, so far as possible, been\r\nprinted verbatim from Melville’s manuscript. Here and there, however,\r\nowing to the heavily corrected condition of many of the papers, slight\r\nadjustments in the interests of grammar or of style have been made in\r\nMelville’s wording.\r\n\r\nThe editor and publishers are indebted to the Princeton University Press\r\nfor their courtesy in allowing two of the essays included in this volume\r\nto be reprinted from _The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches_, a volume\r\nof Melville’s prose miscellanea recently issued from Princeton.\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Introductory Note"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ7CG8SS24T79X9YN19QH","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJS5VEGSBAMNHWVDV3TSG","peer_type":"frontmatter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJS5VDSWZB22CCVE9XKZ3","peer_type":"toc","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:42.769Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:31.267Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}