{"id":"01KG8AM2S3S5S9G4H2P2PW1DRJ","cid":"bafkreialnsvxjhj4lv2gketn45ym6fuadnaq7siy267a3hownkdmrf6ctm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":370,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":310,"text":"was, however, able to overcome this reluctance on the lecture platform.\r\nOur author’s tendency to philosophical discussion is strikingly set\r\nforth in a letter from Dr. Titus Munson Coan to the latter’s mother,\r\nwritten while a student at Williams College over thirty years ago,\r\nand fortunately preserved by her. Dr. Coan enjoyed the friendship and\r\nconfidence of Mr. Melville during most of his residence in New York. The\r\nletter reads:--\r\n\r\n‘I have made my first literary pilgrimage, a call upon Herman Melville,\r\nthe renowned author of ‘Typee,’ etc. He lives in a spacious farmhouse\r\nabout two miles from Pittsfield, a weary walk through the dust. But it\r\nas well repaid. I introduced myself as a Hawaiian-American, and soon\r\nfound myself in full tide of talk, or rather of monologue. But he would\r\nnot repeat the experiences of which I had been reading with rapture in\r\nhis books. In vain I sought to hear of Typee and those paradise islands,\r\nbut he preferred to pour forth his philosophy and his theories of\r\nlife. The shade of Aristotle arose like a cold mist between myself and\r\nFayaway. We have quite enough of deep philosophy at Williams College,\r\nand I confess I was disappointed in this trend of the talk. But what\r\na talk it was! Melville is transformed from a Marquesan to a gypsy\r\nstudent, the gypsy element still remaining strong within him. And this\r\ncontradiction gives him the air of one who has suffered from opposition,\r\nboth literary and social. With his liberal views, he is apparently\r\nconsidered by the good people of Pittsfield as little better than a\r\ncannibal or a ‘beach-comber.’ His attitude seemed to me something like\r\nthat of Ishmael; but perhaps I judged hastily. I managed to draw him out\r\nvery freely on everything but the Marquesas Islands, and when I left him\r\nhe was in full tide of discourse on all things sacred and profane. But\r\nhe seems to put away the objective side of his life, and to shut himself\r\nup in this cold north as a cloistered thinker.’\r\n\r\nI have been told by Dr. Coan that his father, the Rev. Titus Coan, of\r\nthe Hawaiian Islands, personally visited the Marquesas group, found\r\nthe Typee Valley, and verified in all respects the statements made\r\nin ‘Typee.’ It is known that Mr. Melville from early manhood indulged\r\ndeeply in philosophical studies, and his fondness for discussing such\r\nmatters is pointed out by Hawthorne also, in the ‘English Note Books.’\r\nThis habit increased as he advanced in years, if possible.\r\n\r\nThe chief event of the residence in Pittsfield was the completion and\r\npublication of ‘Moby Dick; or, the Whale,’ in 1851. How many young men\r\nhave been drawn to sea by this book is a question of interest. Meeting\r\nwith Mr. Charles Henry Webb [‘John Paul’) the day after Mr. Melville’s\r\ndeath, I asked him if he were not familiar with that author’s writings.\r\nHe replied that ‘Moby Dick’ was responsible for his three years of life\r\nbefore the mast when a lad, and added that while ‘gamming’ on board\r\nanother vessel he had once fallen in with a member of the boat’s crew\r\nwhich rescued Melville from his friendly imprisonment among the Typees.\r\n\r\nWhile at Pittsfield, besides his own family, Mr. Melville’s mother\r\nand sisters resided with him. As his four children grew up he found\r\nit necessary to obtain for them better facilities for study than the\r\nvillage school afforded; and so, several years after, the household was\r\nbroken up, and he removed with his wife and children to the New York\r\nhouse that was afterwards his home. This house belonged to his brother\r\nAllan, and was exchanged for the estate at Pittsfield. In December,\r\n1866, he was appointed by Mr. H. A. Smyth, a former travelling companion\r\nin Europe, a district officer in the New York Custom House. He held the\r\nposition until 1886, preferring it to in-door clerical work, and then\r\nresigned, the duties becoming too arduous for his failing strength.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPEC98TTS3YB9XGWRJ1C","peer_type":"frontmatter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM2S3N130N4HDBGE4VHQK","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM2S3EKEA9D41ZN91FASJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.379Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.577Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}