Day, the Fifteenth

Such Whales Have I Heard

A little quickie factoid for today about the first book I ever read out loud to Little Bean.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post that Nov. 14 marked the 172nd anniversary of the release of the greatest novel of American literature, Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.” The peanut was just a wee peanut when we spent a few weeks re-reading the book, and yes, I read the whole knot-tying chapter out loud as well.

Little Bean’s first book!

A couple years later our family visited Arrowhead, the historic house museum in Massachusetts where Melville lived and wrote “Moby Dick.” At the time, they had a large fairy garden out back where Little Bean spent most of her time, while I was overwhelmed to find myself looking out the same window as Melville did when distant Mount Greylock reminded him of a whale.

What brings all this to the forefront today? Well, besides the anniversary, in doing some other research, I stumbled across a brief list published in the New York Evening Express of some tourists who visited the Tip Top House at the summit of Mount Washington in 1878, and who should show up but Elizabeth, Fannie and Bessie, Herman’s wife and two daughters. No sign that Herman visited the summit, but it’s possible. He was still working as a New York custom agent at the time and it was fairly common back then for families to summer in the Whites while the patriarch would take the train up to visit over the weekends.

Anyway, I’m always fond of connections to Mount Washington! I’m sure Melville had other connections to New Hampshire. If anyone knows of any, I’d love to hear about them.

So, a short reflection today. Tomorrow, we’ll be in Auburn with a consideration of the great Auburn way marker! And please do have a look at the blurb in bold below. We’re half way through now, and I’d love to grab a few more subscribers if you can help! Until then, a quote from Ishmeal in “Moby Dick,” - “While ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy."

---

If you’ve been reading this little daily reflection, I can’t thank you enough! We’re half way through the month and we have hundreds of subscribers, which really is just more than I had ever hoped for. And for the most part - even as these essays flip and flop from topic to topic - you all, mostly, have stayed! It’s been fun to be theme free, to basically just write Day To Day as something interesting comes to me, or an item or note jogs my memory or interest.

If there’s anything you’d like to read more (or less) about, I’d love to hear your ideas. Do you want me to be more specific? Longer? Shorter? I’m game for anything at this point.

And finally, I’d love to pick up more subscribers before the month closes and believe it or not, the best shot I have at this point is from shares and recommendations from all of you! If you enjoy Day By Day, could you tell a friend or two, share a post or two? I’d be ever so grateful!

And of course, should any of you be interested in learning more about my books, you can find my library here: Dan’s Bookstore

Thanks again, and I’ll see you tomorrow!