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Whale Tales: Here’s How to Get Your Melville

The Hemingway Literary Center at Boise State University and Melville’s Marginalia Online (a virtual archive of books) are celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Herman Melville, author of the iconic work “Moby Dick” and others.  Talks and events will take place throughout the spring on campus and at Boise Public Library.

Here’s the line-up:

Spring 2019 lectures, all of which will be held at 6 p.m. in the Student Union Building, with receptions following:

– Friday, Feb. 8 in the Berquist Lounge: Prof. Michael Sawyer from Colorado College presents, “The Discourse of Race in the Art of Herman Melville.”

– Friday, March 15 in the Berquist Lounge: Prof. Steven Olsen-Smith from Boise State presents,
“White Whale Rising: Source Origins and Artistry in ‘Moby-Dick.’”

– Friday, April 26 in the Farnsworth Room: Prof. Dennis C. Marnon from Harvard University presents, “‘Oh! Oh! This is too much!’ An Old Tub-Oarsman Annotates ‘Moby-Dick.’”

Spring 2019 Literature for Lunch “In the Wake of the Whale” discussions – held from 12:10-1 p.m. at the Boise Public Library, 715 S. Capitol Blvd., in the third floor Bingham Room – will focus on works that influenced Melville or were influenced by Melville, as well as two of Melville’s shorter works.

– Friday, Feb. 22: Herman Melville, “Billy Budd, Sailor”

– Friday, March 29: Nathaniel Philbrick, “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex”

– Friday, April 26: Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street”

– Friday, May 10″ Cormac McCarthy, “No Country for Old Men”

Events are free and open to the public. Contact Prof. Cheryl Hindrichs for more information at cherylhindrichs@boisestate.edu or 208-901-5500.