Moby Dick's success partly due to championing by Dalhousie professor

It is a classic whale of tale, but the resurrection of Moby Dick from a critical flop to a literary classic is a pretty compelling story, too, and with a Nova Scotiantwist.

Sept. 28marks the anniversary of the death of author Herman Melvillein1891, an underappreciated writer and poet at the time of his passing.

Moby Dickmay also have languished, underappreciated and out of print, had it not been for the efforts of aDalhousie University professor named Archibald MacMechan.

Bruce Greenfield, who teaches in the university's English Department, devotes an entire seminar to Melville and Moby Dick.

He acknowledges his past colleague's efforts to revive interest in Moby Dick, which was published in 1851, andpanned by most reviewers of the day.

"[MacMechan] believed the book was unjustly forgotten," Greenfield says. "Hecontacted Melville, before he died, andtried unsuccessfully to convince himthat it wasn't too late."

MacMechan, a well-regarded literary reviewer whose students includedLucyMaudMontgomery and HelenCreighton, wrote apiece about Moby Dick in 1899 called "The Best Sea Story Ever Written."

Moby Dick revived

"It would be an exaggeration" to say Moby Dick would have remained a literary corpseif not forMacMechan's efforts, Greenfield said.

"But he spearheaded the campaign to revive the book, that is true. Not too long after, other American academics rediscovered Melville.

"He was the first academic to write something serious about Melville."

Melville's initial publishing successes two swashbuckling accounts of his early adventures at sea fizzled after the publication of Moby Dick and other subsequent works.

Reviewers of the day found Moby Dick, a more serious andambitious novel, bewildering with its unfamiliar style and composition. Melville mixed scientific description and poetic language in an epic tale populated by colourful characters of different cultures.

He continued to write, but supported his family by working as a New York Harbourcustoms inspector.

MacMechan,a prolific writer of essays, articles and books, is considered to be a Canadian man of letters.He remained a professor at Dalhousie until 1931.He died on Aug. 7, 1933.