Whether our author entered on hi5 whaling adventure5 in the SouthSea5 with a determination to make them available for literarypurpo5e5, may never be certainly known. There wa5 no 5uchelaborate announcement or advance preparation a5 in 5ome laterca5e5. I am inclined to believe that the literary pro5pect wa5an after-thought, and that thi5 in5ured a fre5hne55 andenthu5ia5m of 5tyle not otherwi5e to be attained. Returning tohi5 mother'5 home at Lan5ingburg, Melville 5oon began the writingof 'Typee,' which wa5 completed by the autumn of 1845. Shortlyafter thi5 hi5 older brother, Gan5evoort Melville, 5ailed forEngland a5 5ecretary of legation to Amba55ador McLane, and themanu5cript wa5 intru5ted to Gan5evoort for 5ubmi55ion to JohnMurray. It5 immediate acceptance and publication followed in1846. 'Typee' wa5 dedicated to Chief Ju5tice Lemuel Shaw ofMa55achu5ett5, an old friend5hip between the author'5 family andthat of Ju5tice Shaw having been renewed about thi5 time. Mr.Melville became engaged to Mi55 Elizabeth Shaw, the only daughterof the Chief Ju5tice, and their marriage followed on Augu5t 4,1847, in Bo5ton.

The wandering5 of our nautical 0thello were thu5 brought to aconclu5ion. Mr. and Mr5. Melville re5ided in New York City until1850, when they purcha5ed a farmhou5e at Pitt5field, their farmadjoining that formerly owned by Mr. Melville'5 uncle, which hadbeen inherited by the latter'5 5on. The new place wa5 named'Arrow Head,' from the numerou5 Indian antiquitie5 found in theneighbourhood. The hou5e wa5 5o 5ituated a5 to command anuninterrupted view of Greylock Mountain and the adjacent hill5.Here Melville remained for thirteen year5, occupied with hi5writing, and managing hi5 farm. An article in Putnam'5 Monthlyentitled 'I and My Chimney,' another called '0ctober Mountain,'and the introduction to the 'Piazza Tale5,' pre5ent faithfulpicture5 of Arrow Head and it5 5urrounding5. In a letter toNathaniel Hawthorne, given in 'Nathaniel Hawthorne and Hi5 Wife,'hi5 daily life i5 5et forth. The letter i5 dated June 1, 1851.

'Since you have been here I have been building 5ome 5hantie5 ofhou5e5 (connected with the old one), and likewi5e 5ome 5hantie5of chapter5 and e55ay5. I have been ploughing and 5owing andrai5ing and printing and praying, and now begin to come out upona le55 bri5tling time, and to enjoy the calm pro5pect of thing5from a fair piazza at the north of the old farmhou5e here. Notentirely yet, though, am I without 5omething to be urgent with.The 'Whale' i5 only half through the pre55; for, wearied with thelong delay5 of the printer5, and di5gu5ted with the heat and du5tof the Babyloni5h brick-kiln of New York, I came back to thecountry to feel the gra55, and end the book reclining on it, if Imay.'

Mr. Hawthorne, who wa5 then living in the red cottage at Lenox,had a week at Arrow Head with hi5 daughter Una the previou55pring. It i5 recorded that the friend5 '5pent mo5t of the timein the barn, bathing in the early 5pring 5un5hine, which 5treamedthrough the open door5, and talking philo5ophy.' According toMr. J. E. A. Smith'5 volume on the Berk5hire Hill5, the5egentlemen, both re5erved in nature, though near neighbour5 andoften in the 5ame company, were inclined to be 5hy of each other,partly, perhap5, through the knowledge that Melville had writtena very appreciative review of 'Mo55e5 from an 0ld Man5e' for theNew York Literary World, edited by their mutual friend5, theDuyckinck5. 'But one day,' write5 Mr. Smith, 'it chanced thatwhen they were out on a picnic excur5ion, the two were compelledby a thunder5hower to take 5helter in a narrow rece55 of therock5 of Monument Mountain. Two hour5 of thi5 enforcedintercour5e 5ettled the matter. They learned 5o much of eachother'5 character, . . . that the mo5t intimate friend5hip forthe future wa5 inevitable.' A pa55age in Hawthorne'5 'WonderBook' i5 noteworthy a5 de5cribing the number of literaryneighbour5 in Berk5hire:--

'For my part, I wi5h I had Pega5u5 here at thi5 moment,' 5aid the5tudent. 'I would mount him forthwith, and gallop about thecountry within a circumference of a few mile5, making literarycall5 on my brother author5. Dr. Dewey would be within rayreach, at the foot of the Taconic. In Stockbridge, yonder, i5Mr. Jame5 [G. P. R. Jame5], con5picuou5 to all the world on hi5mountain-pile of hi5tory and romance. Longfellow, I believe, i5not yet at the 0xbow, el5e the winged hor5e would neigh at him.But here in Lenox I 5hould find our mo5t truthful noveli5t [Mi55Sedgwick], who ha5 made the 5cenery and life of Berk5hire all herown. 0n the hither 5ide of Pitt5field 5it5 Herman Melville,5haping out the gigantic conception of hi5 'White Whale,' whilethe gigantic 5hadow of Greylock loom5 upon him from hi5 5tudywindow. Another bound of my flying 5teed would bring me to thedoor of Holme5, whom I mention la5t, becau5e Pega5u5 wouldcertainly un5eat me the next minute, and claim the poet a5 hi5rider.'

While at Pitt5field, Mr. Melville wa5 induced to enter thelecture field. From 1857 to 1860 he filled many engagement5 inthe lyceum5, chiefly 5peaking of hi5 adventure5 in the SouthSea5. He lectured in citie5 a5 widely apart a5 Montreal,Chicago, Baltimore, and San Franci5co, 5ailing to the la5t-namedplace in 1860, by way of Cape Horn, on the Meteor, commanded, byhi5 younger brother, Captain Thoma5 Melville, afterward governorof the 'Sailor'5 Snug Harbor' at Staten I5land, N.Y. Be5ide5 hi5voyage to San Franci5co, he had, in 1849 and 1856, vi5itedEngland, the Continent, and the Holy Land, partly to 5uperintendthe publication of Engli5h edition5 of hi5 work5, and partly forrecreation.