Samuel Joseph Melville (born Samuel Joseph Grossman , 1934 – September 13, 1971), was the principal conspirator and bomb setter in the 1969 bombings of eight government and commercial office buildings in New York City. Melville cited his opposition to the Vietnam War and U.S. imperialism as the motivation for the bombings. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to bombing the Federal Office Building in lower Manhattan , as well as to assaulting a marshal in a failed escape attempt. A key figure in the 1971 Attica Prison riots , he was shot by the police and killed when the uprising was put down by force.
163-524: Sam Melville (a name borrowed from author Herman Melville ) was born to Dorothy and William Grossman in 1934 in New York City. Dorothy left William and moved with Sam back to her hometown of Tonawanda, New York , a suburb of Buffalo . Melville lost sight in one eye at a young age because of a flying cinder. He claimed to have had a rough childhood because of his mother's series of alcoholic and abusive boyfriends. He left home and moved to Buffalo as
326-545: A New York Times editor, who was present at the prison as an observer, published A Time to Die . Another Attica observer, Clarence Jones , released (with Stuart Connelly) his historical account Uprising: Understanding Attica, Revolution and the Incarceration State in 2011. In 1985, Malcolm Bell, a former prosecutor for the Attica Task Force and eventual whistleblower, released his account of
489-541: A rented house in Lansingburgh, almost 12 miles north of Albany. Nothing is known about what Melville did or where he went for several months after he finished teaching at Sikes. On November 12, five days after arriving in Lansingburgh, Melville paid for a term at Lansingburgh Academy to study surveying and engineering. In an April 1839 letter recommending Herman for a job in the Engineer Department of
652-629: A visit . The illusion is quite dispelled however when Herman stalks into my room without even the ceremony of knocking, bringing me perhaps a button to sew on, or some equally romantic occupation". On February 16, 1849, the Melvilles' first child, Malcolm, was born. In March 1848, Mardi was published by Richard Bentley in London, and in April by Harper in New York. Nathaniel Hawthorne thought it
815-472: A 160-acre farm in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Melville had high hopes that his next book would please the public and restore his finances. In April 1851 he told his British publisher, Richard Bentley , that his new book had "unquestionable novelty" and was calculated to have wide appeal with elements of romance and mystery. In fact, Pierre: or, The Ambiguities was heavily psychological, though drawing on
978-462: A 160-acre farm in Pittsfield. Melville called his new home Arrowhead because of the arrowheads that were dug up around the property during planting season. That winter, Melville paid Hawthorne an unexpected visit, only to discover he was working and "not in the mood for company". Hawthorne's wife Sophia gave him copies of Twice-Told Tales and, for Malcolm, The Grandfather's Chair . Melville invited them to visit Arrowhead soon, hoping to "[discuss]
1141-454: A Revolutionary War veteran was serialized in Putnam's Monthly Magazine in 1853. From November 1853 to 1856, Melville published fourteen tales and sketches in Putnam's and Harper's magazines. In December 1855 he proposed to Dix & Edwards, the new owners of Putnam's , that they publish a selective collection of the short fiction. The collection, titled The Piazza Tales , was named after
1304-606: A bankrupt ... and we removed from the city; for when I think of those days, something rises up in my throat and almost strangles me". With Melville, Arvin argues, one has to reckon with "psychology, the tormented psychology, of the decayed patrician". When Melville's paternal grandfather died on September 16, 1832, Maria and her children discovered Allan, somewhat unscrupulously, had borrowed more than his share of his inheritance, meaning Maria received only $ 20 (equivalent to $ 600 in 2023). His paternal grandmother died almost exactly seven months later. Melville did his job well at
1467-526: A blank register for indexing remarkable passages from books one had read for easy retrieval. Among the sample entries that Gansevoort made showing his academic scrupulousness was "Pequot, beautiful description of the war with," with a short title reference to the place in Benjamin Trumbull's A Complete History of Connecticut (Volume I in 1797, and Volume II in 1818) in which the description could be found. The two surviving volumes of Gansevoort's are
1630-547: A cleavage between the prison population's reformist and revolutionary/abolitionist elements. Published in 1972, the first historical account of the Attica Prison Uprising was written by The New York State Special Commission on Attica and was entitled Attica: The Official Report . Published in 1974, The Brothers of Attica is a first hand account written by a former Attica prisoner and Nation of Islam member named Richard X. Clark. In 1975, Tom Wicker ,
1793-683: A clerk, Melville joined the U.S. Navy on August 20, as an ordinary seaman on the frigate USS United States . During the next year, the homeward bound ship visited the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, and Valparaiso, and then, from summer to fall 1844, Mazatlan, Lima, and Rio de Janeiro, before reaching Boston on October 3. Melville was discharged on October 14. This Navy experience is used in White-Jacket (1850), Melville's fifth book. Melville's wander-years created what biographer Arvin calls "a settled hatred of external authority,
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#17327911130191956-704: A close friend of Melville's father, and Shaw's marriage with Melville's aunt Nancy was prevented only by her death. His warmth and financial support for the family continued after Allan's death. Melville dedicated his first book, Typee , to him. Lizzie was raised by her grandmother and an Irish nurse. Arvin suggests that Melville's interest in Lizzie may have been stimulated by "his need of Judge Shaw's paternal presence". They were married on August 4, 1847. Lizzie described their marriage as "very unexpected, and scarcely thought of until about two months before it actually took place". She wanted to be married in church, but they had
2119-461: A contract on Christmas Day with the ship's agent as a "green hand" for 1/175th of whatever profits the voyage would yield. On Sunday the 27th, the brothers heard Reverend Enoch Mudge preach at the Seamen's Bethel on Johnnycake Hill, where white marble cenotaphs on the walls memorialized local sailors who had died at sea, often in battle with whales. When he signed the crew list the next day, Herman
2282-509: A copy of his father's account of his adventures aboard the Essex . Ten years later, Melville wrote in his other copy of the book: "The reading of this wondrous story upon the landless sea, & close to the very latitude of the shipwreck had a surprising effect upon me". On September 25, the ship reported having 600 barrels of oil to another whaler, and in October 700 barrels. On October 24,
2445-405: A decision later called "inexcusable" by the commission established by Rockefeller to study the riot and the aftermath. By the time the facility was reported as fully secured at 10:05 a.m., law enforcement had shot at least 128 men and killed nine hostages and twenty-nine inmates. A tenth hostage, Correctional Officer Harrison W. Whalen, died on October 9, 1971, of gunshot wounds received during
2608-547: A further meeting of the two. In March 1847, Omoo , a sequel to Typee , was published by Murray in London, and in May by Harper in New York. Omoo is "a slighter but more professional book," according to Milder. Typee and Omoo gave Melville overnight renown as a writer and adventurer, and he often entertained by telling stories to his admirers. As the writer and editor Nathaniel Parker Willis wrote, "With his cigar and his Spanish eyes, he talks Typee and Omoo, just as you find
2771-493: A genial latitudinarianism that gave novelty to a South Sea idyll at once erotically suggestive and romantically chaste". An unsigned review in the Salem Advertiser written by Nathaniel Hawthorne called the book a "skilfully managed" narrative by an author with "that freedom of view ... which renders him tolerant of codes of morals that may be little in accordance with our own". Hawthorne continued: This book
2934-559: A governor of Sailors' Snug Harbor . Part of a well-established and colorful Boston family, Allan Melvill spent considerable time away from New York City, travelling regularly to Europe as a commission merchant and an importer of French dry goods. Both of Melville's grandfathers played significant roles in the American Revolutionary War , and Melville later expressed satisfaction in his "double revolutionary descent". Major Thomas Melvill (1751–1832) participated in
3097-447: A home with Melville regardless of place, a willingness to please her husband by performing such "tasks of drudgery" as mending stockings, an ability to hide her agitation, and a desire "to shield Melville from unpleasantness". The Kennedys conclude that "If the ensuing years did bring regrets to Melville's life, it is impossible to believe he would have regretted marrying Elizabeth. In fact, he must have realized that he could not have borne
3260-604: A lasting impression on both his thought and his art, as did his almost encyclopedic knowledge of both the Old and the New Testaments. In October 1831, Melville left the Academy. While the precise reason is not known definitively, Parker speculates it was for financial reasons, since "even the tiny tuition fee seemed too much to pay". In December 1831, Allan Melvill returned from New York City by steamboat, but he had to travel
3423-487: A lust for personal freedom", and a "growing and intensifying sense of his own exceptionalism as a person", along with "the resentful sense that circumstance and mankind together had already imposed their will upon him in a series of injurious ways". Scholar Robert Milder believes the encounter with the wide ocean, where he was seemingly abandoned by God, led Melville to experience a "metaphysical estrangement" and influenced his social views in two ways: first, that he belonged to
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#17327911130193586-457: A madman. We were somewhat startled at the remark, but still more at learning, a few days after, that Melville was really supposed to be deranged, and that his friends were taking measures to place him under treatment. We hope one of the earliest precautions will be to keep him stringently secluded from pen and ink. On May 22, 1853, Melville's third child and first daughter Elizabeth (Bessie) was born, and on or about that day Herman finished work on
3749-691: A month as beachcomber and island rover ("omoo" in Tahitian), eventually crossing over to Moorea . He drew on these experiences for Omoo , the sequel to Typee . In November, he contracted to be a seaman on the Nantucket whaler Charles & Henry for a six-month cruise (November 1842 – April 1843), and was discharged at Lahaina , Maui , in the Hawaiian Islands , in May 1843. After four months of working several jobs in Hawaii, including as
3912-633: A most amiable and innocent child, I cannot find it in my heart to coerce him". Emotionally unstable and behind on paying the rent for the house on Broadway, Herman's father tried to recover by moving his family to Albany, New York , in 1830 and going into the fur business . Herman attended The Albany Academy from October 1830 to October 1831, where he took the standard preparatory course, including reading and spelling, penmanship, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, natural history, universal, Greek, Roman, and English history, classical biography, and Jewish antiquities. In early August 1831, Herman marched in
4075-500: A new introductory story Melville wrote for it, "The Piazza". It also contained five previously published stories, including " Bartleby, the Scrivener " and " Benito Cereno ". On March 2, 1855, the Melvilles' fourth child, Frances (Fanny), was born. In this period, his book Israel Potter was published. Attica Prison riot 10 correctional officers killed (9 by correctional officers) 5 correctional officers wounded during
4238-491: A new ship, the Acushnet . Built in 1840, the ship measured some 104 feet in length, almost 28 feet in breadth, and almost 14 feet in depth. She measured slightly less than 360 tons and had two decks and three masts, but no quarter galleries . The Acushnet was owned by Melvin O. Bradford and Philemon Fuller of Fairhaven, Massachusetts , and was berthed near their office at the foot of Center Street in that town. Herman signed
4401-774: A particularly warm and loving father," while Maria was "warmly maternal, simple, robust, and affectionately devoted to her husband and her brood". Melville's education began when he was six. In 1824, the Melvills moved to a newly built house at 33 Bleecker Street in Manhattan . In 1825, Herman and his brother Gansevoort enrolled in New York Male High School. In 1826, the year that Herman contracted scarlet fever , Allan Melvill described him as "very backwards in speech & somewhat slow in comprehension" at first, but his development increased its pace and Allan
4564-496: A period of parties, picnics, and dinners. Nathaniel Hawthorne and his publisher James T. Fields joined the group while Hawthorne's wife stayed at home to look after the children. On one picnic outing organized by Duyckinck, Hawthorne and Melville sought shelter from the rain together and had a deep, private conversation. Melville had been given a copy of Hawthorne's short story collection Mosses from an Old Manse , though he had not yet read it. Melville then avidly read it and wrote
4727-575: A position as a United States customs inspector . From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War . In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land
4890-422: A private wedding ceremony at home to avoid possible crowds hoping to see the celebrity. The couple honeymooned in the then-British Province of Canada , and traveled to Montreal. They settled in a house on Fourth Avenue in New York City (now called Park Avenue). According to scholars Joyce Deveau Kennedy and Frederick James Kennedy, Lizzie brought to their marriage a sense of religious obligation, an intent to make
5053-568: A project designing office buildings in South Africa , then still operating under apartheid , on behalf of Chase Manhattan Bank . The abrupt resignation created a rift between Melville and his wife, and he ultimately became estranged from both her and their child. Afterwards, Melville survived by working odd jobs, including for the National Guardian , a weekly left-wing newspaper published in New York City. He became involved with
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5216-503: A prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet , but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands . Typee , his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw,
5379-545: A review, " Hawthorne and His Mosses ", which appeared in two installments, on August 17 and 24, in The Literary World . Melville wrote that these stories revealed a dark side to Hawthorne, "shrouded in blackness, ten times black". He repeatedly compared Hawthorne to Shakespeare, and urged that "men not very much inferior to Shakespeare are this day being born on the banks of the Ohio." The critic Walter Bezanson finds
5542-433: A rich book "with depths here and there that compel a man to swim for his life". According to Milder, the book began as another South Sea story but, as he wrote, Melville left that genre behind, first in favor of "a romance of the narrator Taji and the lost maiden Yillah," and then "to an allegorical voyage of the philosopher Babbalanja and his companions through the imaginary archipelago of Mardi". In October 1849, Redburn
5705-470: A romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia ; and Billy Budd, Sailor , a posthumously published novella . At the time of his death Melville was not well known to the public, but 1919, the centennial of his birth, was the starting point of a Melville revival . Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels . Melville was born in New York City, the third child of
5868-633: A similar death in Pierre . The death of Allan caused many major shifts in the family's material and spiritual circumstances. One result was the greater influence of his mother's religious beliefs. Maria sought consolation in her faith and in April was admitted as a member of the First Reformed Dutch Church. Herman's saturation in orthodox Calvinism was surely the most decisive intellectual and spiritual influence of his early life. Two months after his father's death, Gansevoort entered
6031-578: A spirit proper enough to a young and adventurous sailor, and which makes his book the more wholesome to our staid landsmen. Pleased but not overwhelmed by the adulation of his new public, Melville later expressed concern that he would "go down to posterity ... as a 'man who lived among the cannibals'!" The writing of Typee brought Melville back into contact with his friend Greene—Toby in the book—who wrote confirming Melville's account in newspapers. The two corresponded until 1863, and in his final years Melville "traced and successfully located his old friend" for
6194-509: A teenager, making his living as a bowling alley pinsetter . Melville later met his father, who had come to Western New York to look for him. His father convinced him to move back to New York City, finish his high school education and pursue his passion for singing. Back in New York, Melville completed high school, studied singing, found employment as a draftsman , married and started a family. Although Melville had enjoyed his job, he quit his position in outrage when his employer assigned him to
6357-410: A term of up to two years for attempted assault, and John Hill, who was Mohawk , was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years to life. Supporters alleged that the trial was unfairly conducted and that the men's ethnicity contributed to their indictment and conviction, with Hill's lawyer William Kunstler saying at the sentencing, "I'm not going to give the impression to the outside world that there
6520-501: A year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including " Benito Cereno " and " Bartleby, the Scrivener ". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East , and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking
6683-432: Is I think the combination of age and a greater coming together is responsible for the speed of the passing time. it's six months now and i can tell you truthfully few periods in my life have passed so quickly. i am in excellent physical and emotional health. there are doubtless subtle surprises ahead but i feel secure and ready. As lovers will contrast their emotions in times of crisis, so am i dealing with my environment. in
Sam Melville - Misplaced Pages Continue
6846-622: Is inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne". On October 18, 1851, The Whale was published in Britain in three volumes, and on November 14 Moby-Dick appeared in the United States as a single volume. In between these dates, on October 22, 1851, the Melvilles' second child, Stanwix, was born. In December, Hawthorne told Duyckinck, "What a book Melville has written! It gives me an idea of much greater power than his preceding ones." Unlike other contemporaneous reviewers of Melville, Hawthorne had seen
7009-419: Is justice here." In 1975, Malcolm Bell, a prosecutor in the Attica Task Force, sent a report to Governor Hugh Carey alleging that his superiors were covering up evidence of criminal actions by law enforcement officers in the retaking of Attica and preventing him from fully investigating and prosecuting law enforcement. After Bell's report was leaked to the public, Carey appointed Judge Bernard S. Meyer of
7172-519: Is lightly but vigorously written; and we are acquainted with no work that gives a freer and more effective picture of barbarian life, in that unadulterated state of which there are now so few specimens remaining. The gentleness of disposition that seems akin to the delicious climate, is shown in contrast with the traits of savage fierceness...He has that freedom of view—it would be too harsh to call it laxity of principle—which renders him tolerant of codes of morals that may be little in accordance with our own,
7335-534: Is unknown, biographer Hershel Parker says that Maria "thought her mother's money was infinite and that she was entitled to much of her portion" while her children were young. How well the parents managed to hide the truth from their children is "impossible to know", according to biographer Andrew Delbanco . In 1830, the Gansevoorts ended their financial support of the Melvilles, at which point Allan's lack of financial responsibility had left him in debt to both
7498-662: The New York Times ; James Ingram of the Michigan Chronicle ; State Senator John Dunne , head of a Prisons Committee in the legislature; State Representative Arthur Eve , U.S. congressman from New York; attorney Herman Badillo ; civil rights lawyer William Kunstler ; Clarence Jones , publisher of the Amsterdam News in New York and former advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. ; representatives of
7661-621: The Acushnet cooperatively set about its whaling endeavors several times with the Columbus of New Bedford, which also took letters from Melville's ship; the two ships were in the same area just south of the Equator. On June 16, the Acushnet carried 750 barrels of oil and sent home 200 on the Herald the Second , and, on June 23, she reached the Marquesas Islands and anchored at Nuku Hiva . In
7824-580: The Acushnet crossed the equator to the north, and six or seven days later arrived at the Galápagos Islands. This short visit would be the basis for " The Encantadas ". On November 2, the Acushnet and three other American whalers were hunting together near the Galápagos Islands; Melville later exaggerated that number in Sketch Fourth of "The Encantadas". From November 19 to 25, the ship anchored at Chatham's Isle, and on December 2 reached
7987-743: The Black Panther Party , was shot and killed during an escape attempt in which three prison guards and two white inmates were murdered at San Quentin State Prison in California. Through his writings, Jackson had encouraged imprisoned people throughout the United States to become politically active. As a result, Jackson became one of the first targets of the FBI's Black Extremist Activities in Penal institutions program, which later evolved into
8150-585: The Boston Tea Party , and Melville's maternal grandfather, General Peter Gansevoort (1749–1812), commanded the defense of Fort Stanwix in New York in 1777. At the turn of the 19th century, Major Melvill did not send his son Allan (Herman's father) to college, but instead sent him to France, where he spent two years in Paris and learned to speak French fluently. In 1814, Allan, who subscribed to his father's Unitarianism , married Maria Gansevoort, who
8313-505: The Erie Canal , Peter Gansevoort says his nephew "possesses the ambition to make himself useful in a business which he desires to make his profession," but no job resulted. Just weeks after this failure, Melville's first known published essay appeared. Using the initials "L.A.V.", Herman contributed "Fragments from a Writing Desk" to the weekly newspaper Democratic Press and Lansingburgh Advertiser , which printed it in two installments,
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#17327911130198476-596: The Prison Activists Surveillance Program (PRISACTS). Many incarcerated people in Attica had read Jackson's books and cited Jackson's death as a major catalyst for the riot. The day after Jackson's death, at least 700 Attica inmates participated in a hunger strike in his honor. On Wednesday, September 8, 1971, two inmates fought during their recreation break, and a correctional officer came up to intervene. One inmate had already left
8639-536: The Third-World , the Black Power Movement and New Left movements within the United States, and intensifying state repression of these movements, including via War on Crime and the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program . Some of the prisoners in Attica participated in the riot because they desired better living conditions. Historian and left-wing activist Howard Zinn wrote the following about
8802-688: The Weather Underground and the Black Panther Party . In New York City, Melville had been working with a radical activist group known as "The Crazies". One of their members, George Demmerle, was an FBI informant who assisted in the gathering of evidence and apprehension of the group. On November 12, 1969, hours after the Criminal Courts Building bombing, police arrested Melville and Demmerle as they placed dynamite charges in National Guard trucks parked outside
8965-566: The Weather Underground launched a retaliatory attack on the New York Department of Corrections, exploding a bomb near Oswald's office. "The communiqué accompanying the attack called the prison system an example of 'how a society run by white racists maintains its control,' with white supremacy being the 'main question white people have to face. ' " In response to public criticism, in November 1971 Governor Rockefeller established
9128-588: The Young Lords , and others. Prisoners requested Minister Louis Farrakhan , national representative of the Nation of Islam , but he declined. Inmates also requested representatives from the Black Panther Party ; Bobby Seale addressed the inmates briefly on September 11 but did not stay long and some believed that he inflamed tensions. The prisoners and team of observers continued to negotiate with Commissioner of Corrections Russell Oswald, who agreed to 28 of
9291-556: The 1,200 prisoners for which it was designed to 2,243. Additionally, as in many American prisons, racial disparities also existed at Attica. Within the prison population, 54% of the incarcerated men were African American , 9% of them were Puerto Rican , and 37% of them were white . All of the guards or all but one of the guards (depending on the source) were white. Guards often threw out letters written in Spanish sent to or from Puerto Rican prisoners, and relegated black prisoners to
9454-407: The 1820s, Melville lived a privileged and opulent life in a household supported by three or more servants at a time. Every four years, the family moved to more spacious and elegant quarters, finally settling on Broadway in 1828. Allan Melvill lived beyond his means, on large sums that he borrowed from his father and from his wife's widowed mother. Although his wife's opinion of his financial conduct
9617-420: The 1980s and 1990s many of these improvements were reversed. For example, the 1994 Crime Bill eliminated all Pell Grants for prisoners, resulting in the defunding of higher education within prisons. As a result, all university-level education programs in prisons ended with no other educational options for inmates. Overcrowding worsened, with the prison population of New York increasing dramatically from 12,500 at
9780-481: The 69th Regimental Armory at 26th Street and Lexington Avenue. Alpert and Hughey were arrested shortly thereafter. On March 7, 1970, Melville overpowered an unarmed marshal at the Federal Courthouse and tried to escape. During a conference with his attorney on a Saturday, when the building was almost deserted, he jumped the marshal, knocked him down and tied him up with his own belt before running out of
9943-530: The Agatha story, Isle of the Cross . Melville traveled to New York to discuss a book, presumably Isle of the Cross , with his publisher, but later wrote that Harper & Brothers was "prevented" from publishing his manuscript because it was lost. After the commercial and critical failure of Pierre , Melville had difficulty finding a publisher for his follow-up novel Israel Potter . Instead, this narrative of
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#173279111301910106-535: The Albany city government procession of the year's "finest scholars" and was presented with a copy of The London Carcanet , a collection of poems and prose, inscribed to him as "first best in ciphering books". As Melville scholar Merton Sealts observed, The ubiquitous classical references in Melville's published writings suggest that his study of ancient history, biography, and literature during his school days left
10269-517: The Ashes of Attica is a memoir by Deanne Quinn Miller (with Gary Craig), the daughter of the prison guard killed during the initial riot, William Quinn, and an organizer with The Forgotten Victims of Attica, a group made up of surviving hostages and families of prison employees who were killed. In 2022, Joshua Melville, the son of Sam Melville, one of the inmates killed in the retaking of the prison, released American Time Bomb: Attica, Sam Melville, and
10432-583: The Auburn prison riot were subsequently transferred to other New York State prisons, including Attica. In July 1971, a group of Attica inmates presented a list of 27 demands regarding improvements in living conditions in Attica to state Commissioner of Corrections Russell Oswald and Governor Nelson Rockefeller . These demands included improvements in multiple areas such as diet, the quality of guards, rehabilitation programs, and, in particular, education programs. The inmates also demanded increased religious freedom,
10595-519: The Melvill and Gansevoort families for a sum exceeding $ 20,000 (equivalent to $ 572,000 in 2023). But Melville biographer Newton Arvin writes that the relative happiness and comfort of Melville's early childhood depended less on Allan's wealth or on his profligate spending, as on the "exceptionally tender and affectionate spirit in all the family relationships, especially in the immediate circle". Arvin describes Allan as "a man of real sensibility and
10758-720: The New York State Special Commission on Attica, appointing members and naming Dean of NYU Law School Robert B. McKay as chair. Known as the McKay Commission, the commission was directed to investigate the circumstances leading up to, during, and following the events at Attica. The commission's report, published in September 1972, was critical of Rockefeller, the Department of Corrections, and New York State Police for their handling of
10921-511: The Ohio River. Inspired by contemporaneous popular cultural reading, including Richard Henry Dana Jr. 's new book Two Years Before the Mast and Jeremiah N. Reynolds 's account in the May 1839 issue of The Knickerbocker magazine of the hunt for a great white sperm whale named Mocha Dick , Herman and Gansevoort traveled to New Bedford, where Herman signed up for a whaling voyage aboard
11084-596: The Philo Logos Society, which Peter Gansevoort invited to move into Stanwix Hall for no rent. In the Albany Microscope in March, Melville published two polemical letters about issues in vogue in the debating societies. Historians Leon Howard and Hershel Parker suggest the motive behind the letters was a youthful desire to have his rhetorical skills publicly recognized. In May, the Melvilles moved to
11247-1053: The Queens Branch House of Detention at Long Island City, and the Adolescent Remand Shelter on Rikers Island. Inmates at the Manhattan House of Detention held five guards hostage for eight hours, until state officials promised to hear prisoner grievances and they also promised not to take any punitive action against the rioters. Despite that promise, officials had the primary ringleaders shipped to various New York State Prisons and many were brutalized, held for months in solitary confinement and faced further criminal charges. Incarcerated people and state authorities in Auburn Correctional Facility engaged in an ongoing conflict and confrontation between November 2, 1970 and June 9, 1971. Several participants in what came to be known as
11410-410: The Supreme Court for Nassau County, New York to the post of Special Deputy Attorney General to investigate. The Meyer Report, released in December 1975, found "[t]here was no intentional cover-up", but "there were, however, serious errors of judgment" including "important omissions on the part of the State Police in the gathering of evidence." Initially, only the first of the three-volume Meyer report
11573-400: The Universe with a bottle of brandy & cigars" with Hawthorne, but Hawthorne would not stop working on his new book for more than one day and they did not come. After a second visit from Melville, Hawthorne surprised him by arriving at Arrowhead with his daughter Una. According to Robertson-Lorant, "The handsome Hawthorne made quite an impression on the Melville women, especially Augusta, who
11736-412: The ability to engage in political activity, and an end to censorship, which they argued were all vital to a proper education within the prison. The commissioner did not take any actions on the list of demands. Attica warden Vincent Mancusi responded by adding additional restrictions to inmates' reading materials and personal belongings. In August 1971, George Jackson , an author and prominent member of
11899-583: The altercation to be taken to solitary confinement, but when the officers arrived at 5 Company to take the inmates away, other prisoners resisted. The other inmates in 5 Company shouted and threw things at the guards and one inmate, William Ortiz, hit an officer with a can of soup, resulting in him being assigned to "keep lock", or confinement to his cell. The morning of Thursday, September 9, 1971, prisoners of 5 Company were still upset and demanded that officers tell them what would become of Ortiz. Officer Gordon Kelsey told them he did not know and tried to continue
12062-402: The area, but the officer demanded the remaining inmate return to his cell, and in the ensuing argument the inmate hit the officer. Other inmates and guards joined the commotion, and another inmate also hit the officer, but before the violence could intensify, Lieutenant Robert Curtiss moved to deescalate the situation. Later that evening, warden Vincent Mancusi ordered the two inmates involved in
12225-458: The assault The Attica Prison riot took place at the state prison in Attica, New York ; it started on September 9, 1971, and ended on September 13 with the highest number of fatalities in the history of United States prison uprisings . Of the 43 men who died (33 inmates and 10 correctional officers and employees), all but one guard and three inmates were killed by law enforcement gunfire when
12388-422: The assault. Inmate survivors alleged that leaders were singled out and killed by troopers during and after the retaking. According to a doctor who treated survivors, "[m]any of the ringleaders were approached by guards and shot systematically. Some had their hands in the air surrendering. Some were lying on the ground." One of the leaders, Elliott James "L.D." Barkley, who was frequently featured in news coverage,
12551-666: The bank to man the cap and fur store. In 1835, while still working in the store, Melville enrolled in Albany Classical School, perhaps using Maria's part of the proceeds from the sale of the estate of his maternal grandmother in March 1835. In September of the following year, Herman was back at The Albany Academy , participating in the school's Latin course. He also participated in debating societies, in an apparent effort to make up as much as he could for his missed years of schooling. During this time, he read Shakespeare , including Macbeth , whose witch scenes gave him
12714-523: The bank; although he was only 14 in 1834, the bank considered him competent enough to be sent to Schenectady, New York, on an errand. Not much else is known from this period except that he was very fond of drawing. The visual arts became a lifelong interest. Around May 1834, the Melvilles moved to another house in Albany, a three-story brick house. That same month a fire destroyed Gansevoort's skin-preparing factory, which left him with personnel he could neither employ nor afford. Instead he pulled Melville out of
12877-500: The best evidence for Melville's reading in this period. Gansevoort's entries include books Melville used for Moby-Dick and Clarel , including "Parsees—of India—an excellent description of their character, and religion and an account of their descent—East India Sketch Book p. 21". Other entries are on Panther, the pirate's cabin, and storm at sea from James Fenimore Cooper 's The Red Rover . The Panic of 1837 forced Gansevoort to file for bankruptcy in April. In June, Maria told
13040-552: The bombing of the Marine Midland Building resulted in 19 injuries. Melville had met and become romantically involved with Jane Alpert , a recent graduate of Swarthmore College , while she was enrolled in a graduate program in journalism at Columbia University . The pair were also close with Pat Swinton and Dave Hughey who assisted them with several bombings. Other members of their group were never identified. Melville and Alpert became increasingly involved with
13203-496: The cap and fur business. Uncle Peter Gansevoort, a director of the New York State Bank, got Herman a job as clerk for $ 150 a year (equivalent to $ 4,600 in 2023). Biographers cite a passage from Redburn when trying to answer what Herman must have felt then: "I had learned to think much and bitterly before my time," the narrator remarks, adding, "I must not think of those delightful days, before my father became
13366-524: The chance to teasingly scare his sisters. By March 1837, however, he again withdrew from The Albany Academy. Gansevoort served as a role model and support for Melville throughout his life, particularly during this time trying to cobble together an education. In early 1834, Gansevoort became a member of Albany's Young Men's Association for Mutual Improvement, and in January 1835 Melville joined him there. Gansevoort also had copies of John Todd's Index Rerum ,
13529-410: The coast of Peru and anchored at Tombez near Paita , with 570 barrels of oil on board. On December 27, the Acushnet sighted Cape Blanco, off Ecuador. Point St. Elena was sighted the next day, and on January 6, 1842, the ship approached the Galápagos Islands from the southeast. From February 13 to May 7, seven sightings of sperm whales were recorded, but none were killed. From early May to early June,
13692-542: The commissioner hours before the attack, and if we had been allowed to continue, everyone would be alive and the matter would be settled today." The situation may have been further complicated by Governor Rockefeller's refusal even to come to the prison or meet with the inmates. Instead, Rockefeller dispatched Commissioner of the Office of General Services Almerin C. O'Hara , a retired National Guard major general, as his personal representative and liaison. Because Rockefeller
13855-417: The conditions in Attica prior to the uprising, Prisoners spent 14 to 16 hours a day in their cells, their mail was read, their reading material restricted, their visits from families conducted through a mesh screen, their medical care disgraceful, their parole system inequitable, racism everywhere. Overcrowding contributed to the poor conditions, as in recent years the prison's population had increased from
14018-411: The conventions of the romance, and difficult in style. It was not well received. The New York Day Book published a venomous attack on September 8, 1852, headlined "HERMAN MELVILLE CRAZY". The item, offered as a news story, reported, A critical friend, who read Melville's last book, Ambiguities , between two steamboat accidents, told us that it appeared to be composed of the ravings and reveries of
14181-567: The daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw . Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family. Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly
14344-415: The doors locked. The inmates believed they were about to be punished and a melee broke out, which resulted in chaos as some inmates attacked the guards and others tried to flee. The chaos spread to other nearby companies of inmates, and the uprising began. During this stage, several guards and inmates were injured. Officer William Quinn would die in the hospital two days later of injuries sustained during
14507-530: The economics of prisoner jobs and wrote a mini-treatise criticizing prison labor, "Anatomy of the Laundry", which was widely read by inmates. Melville was among the committee of inmates who helped organize inmates' demands and keep order during the Attica Prison Riot in September 1971. Melville, 28 other inmates, and 10 hostages were shot and killed by state police on September 13, when the uprising
14670-469: The essay "so deeply related to Melville's imaginative and intellectual world while writing Moby-Dick " that it could be regarded as a virtual preface and should be "everybody's prime piece of contextual reading". Later that summer, Duyckinck sent Hawthorne copies of Melville's three most recent books. Hawthorne read them, as he wrote to Duyckinck on August 29 that Melville in Redburn and White-Jacket put
14833-586: The exception of Indian massacres in the late 19th century, the State Police assault which ended the four-day prison uprising was the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War." State officials, including Oswald and Rockefeller, initially stated that inmates slit the throats of many of their hostages. The false information was widely reported in the media. But less than 24 hours later, official medical examiners confirmed that all
14996-479: The families of the deceased, and for their correctional officer counterparts who had been killed or injured and their bereaved as well. Partially in response to the Attica uprising, the New York State Department of Corrections implemented changes including: While there were improvements in prison conditions in the years immediately following the uprising, during the "tough on crime" era of
15159-473: The first on May 4. According to Merton Sealts, his use of heavy-handed allusions reveals familiarity with the work of William Shakespeare , John Milton , Walter Scott , Richard Brinsley Sheridan , Edmund Burke , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Lord Byron , and Thomas Moore . Parker calls the piece "characteristic Melvillean mood-stuff" and considers its style "excessive enough [...] to indulge his extravagances and just enough overdone to allow him to deny that he
15322-481: The flow of his delightful mind on paper". In 1847, Melville tried unsuccessfully to find a "government job" in Washington. In June 1847, Melville and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Knapp Shaw were engaged, after knowing each other for approximately three months. Melville had first asked her father, Lemuel Shaw , for her hand in March, but was at first turned down at the time. Shaw, Chief Justice of Massachusetts, had been
15485-462: The genteel classes, but sympathized with the "disinherited commons" he had been placed among and, second, that experiencing the cultures of Polynesia let him view the West from an outsider's perspective. Upon his return, Melville regaled his family and friends with his adventurous tales and romantic experiences, and they urged him to put them into writing. Melville completed Typee , his first book, in
15648-422: The governor's refusal, Oswald and Rockefeller agreed that Oswald would order the State Police to retake the facility by force, a decision which was later criticized. On the night of Sunday, September 12, 1971, plans were drawn up to retake the prison by force. Members of the team of observers argued for Oswald to deliver to inmates one final appeal for a settlement before the forcible retaking. Oswald agreed, but
15811-420: The hostages had been killed by bullets fired by law enforcement officers. The Special Commission found that state officials failed to quickly refute the early rumors and false reports. Troopers and prison officers set about with physically violent and humiliating reprisals. Inmates were made to strip naked and crawl through mud, broken glass, and the prisoners' hand-dug latrines. State officials also subjected
15974-414: The hostages if the state was to come in by force. The inmates brought eight corrections officers to the catwalk on top of the command center and surrounded them with inmates armed with homemade weapons. According to surviving inmates, they did not intend to kill the hostages, but rather to use them as insurance. Shortly after inmates and hostages were positioned on the catwalk, Oswald gave the order to begin
16137-429: The indifferent brutality, incessant noise, the experimental chemistry of food, the ravings of lost hysterical men, i can act with clarity and meaning. i am deliberate--sometimes even calculating--seldom employing histrionics except as a test of the reactions of others. i read much, exercise, talk to guards and inmates, feeling for the inevitable direction of my life. On August 28, 2000, a federal judge awarded $ 8 million to
16300-407: The initial riot. By noon on September 9, correctional officers and police controlled about half the prison and its inmates, while 1,281 of Attica's approximately 2,200 inmates controlled the other half, including D-yard, two tunnels, and the central control room, referred to as "Times Square". Inmates held 42 officers and civilian employees as hostages. Once inmates had secured their section of
16463-459: The inmates' demands, but refused to agree to amnesty for the inmates involved in the uprising or to fire the Attica warden. William Kunstler, a lawyer who agreed to represent the inmates in negotiations, said, "The prisoners had two non-negotiable demands: the removal of the warden, and general amnesty, and they had already given up on the removal of the warden. And on the general amnesty, we had worked out several formulas that we were discussing with
16626-614: The investigation and alleged coverup The Turkey Shoot: Tracking the Attica Cover-up . A detailed historical account of the uprising was published by historian Heather Ann Thompson in 2016. The book, entitled Blood in the Water , draws on interviews with former inmates, hostages, families of victims, law enforcement, lawyers, and state officials, as well as significant archives of previously unreleased materials. Published in 2021, The Prison Guard's Daughter: My Journey Through
16789-472: The last 70 miles in an open carriage for two days and two nights in subfreezing temperatures. In early January, he began to show "signs of delirium", and he grew worse until his wife felt that his suffering deprived him of his intellect. On January 28, 1832, he died, two months prior to reaching his 50th birthday. Since Herman was no longer attending school, he likely witnessed his father's medical and mental deterioration. Twenty years later, Melville described
16952-499: The library of his friend Evert Duyckinck . These readings proved significant, occurring as Melville radically transformed his initial plan for the novel over the next several months, conceiving what Delbanco described in 2005 as "the most ambitious book ever conceived by an American writer". From August 4 to 12, 1850, the Melvilles, Sarah Morewood , Duyckinck, Oliver Wendell Holmes , and other literary figures from New York City and Boston came to Pittsfield, Massachusetts , to enjoy
17115-706: The lives of not only us but of every one of you, as well. As speakers such as Barkley raised morale, the elected group of negotiators drafted proposals to present to the commissioner. The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands was a compilation of complaints written by the Attica prisoners, which speak directly to the "sincere people of society". It included 33 demands, including better medical treatment, fair visitation rights, improved food quality, religious freedom, higher wages for inmate jobs, "an end of physical abuse, for [access to] basic necessities like toothbrushes and showers every day, for professional training, and access to newspapers and books." The manifesto assigns
17278-459: The lowest-paid jobs and subjected them to regular racial harassment. There were also geographic disparities – most of the incarcerated men were from urban areas, including metropolitan New York, while most of the guards were from the local region. Anthropologist Orisanmi Burton has shown that while improving prison conditions and racial disparities were an important concern, many Attica prisoners were critical of prison reform and participated in
17441-525: The mood among the inmates deteriorated. In preparation for prison authorities potentially taking the prison back by force, inmates had dug defensive trenches, electrified metal gates, fashioned crude battlements out of metal tables and dirt, and fortified the "Times Square" prison command center. After Oswald left following the inmates' rejection of his latest offer, the inmates decided to try to impress upon prison officials that they were serious about their demands, and to remind them that inmates had power over
17604-541: The nine guide-books listed in chapter 30 of the book had been part of Allan Melvill's library. He arrived back in New York October 1, 1839 and resumed teaching, now at Greenbush, New York, but left after one term because he had not been paid. In the summer of 1840 he and his friend James Murdock Fly went to Galena, Illinois, to see if his Uncle Thomas could help them find work. Unsuccessful, he and his friend returned home in autumn, likely by way of St. Louis and up
17767-474: The opposition to the war in Vietnam, acquainting himself with left-wing political organizations, meeting radical activists, and steeping himself in radical politics. He became particularly interested in the story of George Metesky , a man who had engaged in a mass-bombing campaign across New York City between 1940 and 1956, having targeted a total of 37 terminals, theaters, libraries, and office buildings. Metesky
17930-585: The power to negotiate to five inmates elected to represent the others: Donald Noble, Peter Butler, Frank Lott, Carl Jones-El, and Herbert Blyden X. Additionally, the document specifically lists "vile and vicious slave masters" who oppressed the prisoners, such as the New York governor, New York corrections, and the United States courts. Inmates requested a team of outside observers to assist with negotiations, whom they considered knowledgeable of prison conditions, many of whom officials were able to persuade to come to Attica. Observers included Tom Wicker , an editor of
18093-461: The prison as a radical, was allegedly shot while he had his hands in the air trying to surrender. The final death toll from the rebellion also includes the officer fatally injured by inmates during the initial uprising and three inmates who were subjected to vigilante killings by fellow inmates before the retaking of the prison. Ten hostages died from gunfire by state troopers and soldiers. The New York State Special Commission on Attica wrote, "With
18256-527: The prison maintained a reputation as "a facility where a small group of correction officers dole out harsh punishment largely with impunity" and inmates conveyed numerous stories of poor conditions and severe treatment by guards. Interpreting the post-Attica reforms through the lens of counterinsurgency theory and practice, anthropologist Orisanmi Burton has argued that these temporary "improvements" to prison conditions were designed to fracture that organizing and activism taking place within prisons and to create
18419-431: The prison retaking and for their negligence in protecting inmates from reprisals after the riot. In October 1971, Robert Fischer was appointed as Special Deputy Attorney General to lead the Attica Task Force and was charged with investigating any criminal acts that may have been committed during the uprising or retaking (Fischer was later succeeded as the Attica Task Force leader by Anthony Simonetti). Within four years of
18582-555: The prison retaking sued the State of New York for civil rights violations by law enforcement officers and prison officials during and after the retaking of Attica. After decades in the courts, the state agreed in 2000 to pay $ 8 million ($ 12 million minus legal fees) to settle the case. In 2005, the state separately settled with surviving prison employees and families of the slain prison employees for $ 12 million. Frank "Big Black" Smith advocated both for compensation for inmate survivors and
18745-487: The prison, taking 42 staff hostage. During the following four days of negotiations, authorities agreed to 28 of the prisoners' demands but would not agree to demands for the removal of Attica's superintendent nor to complete amnesty from criminal prosecution for inmates for the prison takeover. By order of Governor Nelson Rockefeller (after consultation with President Richard M. Nixon ), armed corrections officers and state and local police were sent in to regain control of
18908-483: The prison, they began organizing. Inmates elected leaders to represent them in negotiations, appointed inmates to serve as medics and security, and began drafting a list of demands for officials to meet before they would surrender. For example, Frank "Big Black" Smith (September 11, 1933 – July 31, 2004) was appointed as head of security, and he kept both the hostages and the observers committee safe. Additionally, 21-year-old Elliott James "L.D." Barkley, an ardent orator,
19071-415: The prison. By the time they stopped firing, at least 39 people were dead: 10 correctional officers and civilian employees and 29 inmates, with nearly all killed by law enforcement gunfire. Law enforcement subjected many of the survivors to various forms of torture, including sexual violence. Rockefeller had refused to go to the prison or meet with prisoners. After the uprising was suppressed, he said that
19234-562: The prisoners "carried out the cold-blood killings they had threatened from the outset". Medical examiners confirmed that all but the deaths of one officer and three inmates were caused by law enforcement gunfire. The New York Times writer Fred Ferretti said the rebellion concluded in "mass deaths that four days of taut negotiations had sought to avert." As a result of the rebellion, the New York Corrections Department made changes in prisons to satisfy some of
19397-414: The prisoners occurred, especially in New York, but also in cities as far away as Los Angeles and Norman, Oklahoma; several rallies in support of Governor Rockefeller also took place. In addition, activists such as Angela Davis and artists such as John Lennon wrote works in support of the inmates and condemning the official response. At 7:30 p.m. on September 17, militant left-wing organization
19560-412: The prisoners to sexual violence and rape. Directed into the prison, they were forced to run hallways naked between lines of enraged officers, who beat the inmates and yelled insults and racial slurs. Some inmates, including leaders such as Frank Smith, were subject to additional reprisals and punishments, including repeated physical abuse and being locked in solitary confinement. Several days after
19723-435: The prisoners' demands, reduce tension in the system, and prevent such incidents in the future. While there were improvements to prison conditions in the years immediately following the uprising, many of these improvements were reversed in the 1980s and 1990s. Attica remains one of the most infamous prison riots to have occurred in the United States. The uprising occurred within the context of anti-colonial movements throughout
19886-427: The reality "more unflinchingly" before his reader than any writer, and he thought Mardi was "a rich book, with depths here and there that compel a man to swim for his life". But he cautioned, "It is so good that one scarcely pardons the writer for not having brooded long over it, so as to make it a great deal better". In September 1850, Melville borrowed three thousand dollars from his father-in-law Lemuel Shaw to buy
20049-519: The report were released in May 2015. The released pages contain accounts from witnesses and inmates describing torture, burning, and sexual abuse of inmates by prison authorities. In 2021, the 50th anniversary of the uprising, the Forgotten Victims of Attica, surviving inmates, families of killed inmates, historians, and lawyers continued to push for the release of all records related to Attica. In December 1976, Governor Carey announced he
20212-476: The retaking. Of the decision, he later said, "On a much smaller scale, I think I have some feeling now of how Truman must have felt when he decided to drop the A-bomb." At 9:46 a.m. on Monday, September 13, 1971, tear gas was dropped into the yard and hundreds of New York State Police troopers, Bureau of Criminal Investigation personnel, deputy sheriffs, park police, and correctional officers opened fire into
20375-546: The room and down a stairway. Melville was recaptured by an armed marshal on a landing two floors below. Melville plead guilty in early May 1970 to conspiracy and to one of the bombings, as well as to assault during his escape attempt. Melville was eventually transferred to Attica Prison , in Western New York. There, he began an underground publication, Iced Pig , and began to organize the prison population to fight for better conditions. While imprisoned, he researched
20538-443: The routine. As inmates headed to breakfast, some managed to open Ortiz's cell door and he left with them to the mess hall. When the command staff found out what had occurred, they decided to return all of the men of 5 Company to their cells after breakfast. But they did not inform all the correctional officers, and when officers led inmates out toward the recreation area after breakfast, both officers and inmates were surprised to find
20701-399: The ruthless brutalization and disregard for the lives of the prisoners here and throughout the United States. What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed. We will not compromise on any terms except those terms that are agreeable to us. We've called upon all the conscientious citizens of America to assist us in putting an end to this situation that threatens
20864-569: The ship anchored for the first time since Rio, in Santa Harbor. The cruising grounds the Acushnet was sailing attracted much traffic, and Captain Pease not only paused to visit other whalers, but at times hunted in company with them. From July 23 into August, the Acushnet regularly gammed with the Lima from Nantucket, and Melville met William Henry Chase, the son of Owen Chase , who gave him
21027-516: The smoke. Among the weapons used by the troopers were shotguns loaded with buckshot pellets, which led to the wounding and killing of hostages and inmates who were not resisting. Additionally, some of the guns utilized by law enforcement used unjacketed bullets, "a kind of ammunition that causes such enormous damage to human flesh that it was banned by the Geneva Conventions ." Correctional officers from Attica were allowed to participate,
21190-513: The state retook control of the prison on the final day of the uprising. The Attica Uprising has been described as an historic event in the prisoners' rights movement. Prisoners revolted to seek better living conditions and political rights, claiming that they were treated as beasts. On September 9, 1971, 1,281 of the approximately 2,200 men incarcerated in the Attica Correctional Facility rioted and took control of
21353-611: The summer of 1842, Melville and his shipmate Richard Tobias Greene ("Toby") jumped ship at Nuku Hiva Bay. Melville's first book, Typee (1846), is based on his stay in or near the Taipi Valley . By around mid-August, Melville had left the island aboard the Australian whaler Lucy Ann , bound for Tahiti , where he took part in a mutiny and was briefly jailed in the native Calabooza Beretanee . In October, he and crew mate John B. Troy escaped Tahiti for Eimeo . He then spent
21516-755: The summer of 1845 while living in Troy, New York. His brother Gansevoort found a publisher for it in London, where it was published in February 1846 by John Murray in his travel adventure series. It became an overnight bestseller in England, then in New York, when it was published on March 17 by Wiley & Putnam. In the narrative, Melville likely extended the period of time he had spent on the island and also incorporated material from source books he had assembled. Milder calls Typee "an appealing mixture of adventure, anecdote, ethnography, and social criticism presented with
21679-527: The survivors of the Attica uprising. The son of Sam Melville, Josh Melville, was awarded $ 25,000, and said he planned to establish an educational fund with the money awarded. Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill ; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist , short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846),
21842-427: The ten letters Melville wrote to the older man. In the essay on Hawthorne's Mosses , Melville wrote: "I feel that this Hawthorne has dropped germinous seeds into my soul. He expands and deepens down, the more I contemplate him; and further, and further, shoots his strong New-England roots into the hot soil of my Southern soul." Melville dedicated his book to Hawthorne: "In token of my admiration for his genius, this book
22005-421: The third of eight children to Allan Melvill (1782–1832) and Maria (Gansevoort) Melvill (1791–1872), who were of Scottish and Dutch descent. His seven siblings, who played important roles in his career and emotional life, were Gansevoort (1815–1846), Helen Maria (1817–1888), Augusta (1821–1876), Allan (1823–1872), Catherine (1825–1905), Frances Priscilla (1827–1885), and Thomas (1830–1884), who eventually became
22168-516: The time of the Attica uprising to 72,600 in 1999. In 2011, after a man incarcerated in Attica was brutally beaten by guards, for the first time in New York State history, correction officers were criminally charged for a non-sexual assault of an inmate. The guards pleaded guilty in 2015 to a misdemeanor charge of misconduct in order to avoid prison time. In news stories regarding the incident, current and former inmates of Attica reported that
22331-527: The travelogue, the nautical adventure, the sentimental novel, the sensational French romance, the gothic thriller, temperance tracts, urban reform literature, and the English pastoral". His next novel, White-Jacket , was published by Bentley in London in January 1850, and in March by Harper in New York. The earliest surviving mention of Moby-Dick is from a May 1, 1850, letter in which Melville told fellow sea author Richard Henry Dana Jr. "I am half way in
22494-627: The uniqueness of Melville's new novel and acknowledged it. In early December 1852, Melville visited the Hawthornes in Concord and discussed the idea of the "Agatha" story he had talked of with Hawthorne. This was the last contact between the two writers before Melville visited Hawthorne in Liverpool four years later when Hawthorne had relocated to England. After having borrowed three thousand dollars from his father-in-law in September 1850 to buy
22657-407: The uprising because they understood prisons like Attica as sites of revolutionary warfare. Burton therefore argues that the Attica rebellion was informed by the politics of prison abolition . For example, in 1972 an Attica prisoner named Joseph Little told a government panel, "I'm not for no penitentiary reform. I'm for abolishing the whole concept of penitentiary reform." During this period, there
22820-435: The uprising's end, doctors treating wounded inmates reported evidence of more beatings. As the repression was happening in Attica, incarcerated people in other New York State Prisons, especially Auburn Correctional Facility and Clinton Correctional Facility , were subjected to similar forms of violence. Many of these men had previously been incarcerated in Attica and had been involved in political organizations. Following
22983-406: The uprising, 62 inmates had been charged in 42 indictments with 1,289 separate counts. One state trooper was indicted for reckless endangerment. In May 1975, two former inmates were convicted in the death of William Quinn, despite the fact that "[o]nly faltering evidence linked the two inmates to the actual beating that left Quinn dead". Charles Pernasilice, who was Catawba Indian , was sentenced to
23146-435: The uprising, protests and riots occurred in prisons across the United States, including in prisons in New York, Massachusetts, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, and Georgia. According to a Prisoners Solidarity Committee newsletter from September 30, 1971, "[t]he 13 reported rebellions since the Attica massacre doubles the total number of reported prison rebellions since the beginning of this year". Numerous rallies in support of
23309-491: The weight of those years unaided—that without her loyalty, intelligence, and affection, his own wild imagination would have had no "port or haven". Biographer Robertson-Lorant cites "Lizzie's adventurous spirit and abundant energy," and she suggests that "her pluck and good humor might have been what attracted Melville to her, and vice versa". An example of such good humor appears in a letter about her not yet used to being married: "It seems sometimes exactly as if I were here for
23472-616: The work." In June, he described the book to his English publisher as "a romance of adventure, founded upon certain wild legends in the Southern Sperm Whale Fisheries," and promised it would be done by the fall. The original manuscript has not survived. That summer, Melville read Thomas Carlyle , borrowing copies of Sartor Resartus (1833–34) and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History (1841) from
23635-407: The younger children they needed to leave Albany for somewhere cheaper. Gansevoort began studying law in New York City while Herman managed the farm before getting a teaching position at Sikes District School near Lenox, Massachusetts . He taught about 30 students of various ages, including some his own age. The semester over, he returned to his mother in 1838. In February he was elected president of
23798-454: Was "closing the book on Attica". He pardoned all inmates who had previously pleaded guilty to obtain reduced sentences, commuted the sentences of the two inmates convicted in court, and dismissed pending disciplinary actions against 20 law enforcement officers relating to the uprising. Though the possibility of criminal suits was closed with Carey's decision, civil suits were allowed to proceed. Surviving inmates and families of inmates killed in
23961-434: Was "murdered in cold blood with his hands in the air in surrender". A book was published consisting of the letters he wrote from prison, Letters From Attica , with a foreword by William Kunstler , and additional contributions by Jane Alpert and John Cohen. On the basis of the text of a letter he wrote on May 16, 1970, Frederic Rzewski wrote a musical composition, Coming Together [ ja ] . The text used
24124-643: Was a great fan of his books". They spent the day mostly "smoking and talking metaphysics". Robertson-Lorant writes that Melville was "infatuated with Hawthorne's intellect, captivated by his artistry, and charmed by his elusive personality," but "the friendship meant something different to each of them," with Hawthorne offering Melville "the kind of intellectual stimulation he needed". They may have been "natural allies and friends," yet they were also "fifteen years apart in age and temperamentally quite different" and Hawthorne "found Melville's manic intensity exhausting at times". Bezanson identifies "sexual excitement" in all
24287-560: Was a growing culture of activism in which prisoners not only demanded better treatment, but sought to participate in broader movements for radical social transformation within and beyond the United States. The previous year, multiple rebellions occurred throughout the New York City Jail system, including the Manhattan House of Detention, the Brooklyn House of Detention, The Queens Branch House of Detention at Kew Gardens,
24450-434: Was a strong force during the negotiations. He spoke eloquently to the inmates, journalist camera crews, and viewers at home. Barkley, just days away from his scheduled release at the time of the uprising, was killed during the recapturing of the prison. We are men! We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten or driven as such. The entire prison populace, that means every one of us here, has set forth to change forever
24613-584: Was advanced $ 84. On January 3, 1841, the Acushnet set sail. Melville slept with some twenty others in the forecastle ; Captain Valentine Pease, the mates, and the skilled men slept aft . Whales were found near The Bahamas, and in March 150 barrels of oil were sent home from Rio de Janeiro. Cutting in and trying-out (boiling) a single whale took about three days, and a whale yielded approximately one barrel of oil per foot of length and per ton of weight (the average whale weighed 40 to 60 tons). The oil
24776-409: Was allegedly alive after the initial retaking. Assemblyman Arthur Eve testified that Barkley was alive after the prisoners had surrendered and the state regained control; another inmate stated that the officers searched Barkley out, yelling his name, and executed him with a shot to the back. Sam Melville , a member of the committee that helped organize and draft inmates' demands and who was known in
24939-667: Was committed to her family's more strict and biblically oriented Dutch Reformed version of the Calvinist creed. The Gansevoorts' severe Protestantism ensured that Maria was well versed in the Bible, in English as well as in Dutch, the language that the Gansevoorts spoke at home. On August 19, almost three weeks after his birth, Melville was baptized at home by a minister of the South Reformed Dutch Church. During
25102-408: Was confined to a state mental hospital, but Melville began writing "George Metesky Was Here" on buildings around the city. Melville was responsible for, or connected to, multiple bombings, all of them in 1969. The majority were preceded by telephone calls warning building security personnel plus simultaneous political communiques to the press. Although most explosions were timed for late-night hours,
25265-606: Was instructed not to phrase the demand as an ultimatum, as Rockefeller did not want to let inmates know that the assault was beginning. At 8:25 a.m. on Monday, September 13, 1971, Oswald gave the inmates a statement directing them to release the hostages and accept the offered settlement within the hour. However, he did not tell them that negotiations had ended and he would take the prison back by force if they refused, even stating, "I want to continue negotiations with you." The inmates rejected his offer, and as it appeared to them as though Rockefeller remained opposed to their demands
25428-553: Was kept on deck for a day to cool off, and was then stowed down; scrubbing the deck completed the labor. An average voyage meant that some forty whales were killed to yield some 1600 barrels of oil. On April 15, the Acushnet sailed around Cape Horn and traveled to the South Pacific, where the crew sighted whales without catching any. She then went up the coast of Chile to the region of Selkirk Island , and on May 7, near Juan Fernández Islands , she had 160 barrels. On June 23,
25591-487: Was published by Bentley in London, and in November by Harper in New York. The bankruptcy and death of Allan Melvill, and Melville's own youthful humiliations surface in this "story of outward adaptation and inner impairment". Biographer Robertson-Lorant regards the work as a deliberate attempt for popular appeal: "Melville modeled each episode almost systematically on every genre that was popular with some group of antebellum readers," combining elements of "the picaresque novel,
25754-495: Was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis , and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at the time of his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891. Melville was born in New York City , on August 1, 1819,
25917-479: Was put down by order of Governor Nelson Rockefeller . According to some witnesses, Melville was alive after the initial assault was over and the prison was secure but was shot to death by law enforcement while trying to surrender. The law enforcement officer who shot Melville claimed he had done so because Melville was armed with explosives, but investigators and prosecutors could find no evidence to support this claim and lawyers for surviving prisoners maintained that he
26080-544: Was released to the public; in 1981 the State Supreme Court ordered that the other two be sealed permanently. The Forgotten Victims of Attica, a group made up of officers injured in the riot and families of killed officers, pushed for the State of New York to release state records of the uprising to the public. In 2013, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he would seek release of the entirety of volumes 2 and 3, totaling 350 pages. After redactions, 46 pages of
26243-559: Was surprised "that Herman proved the best Speaker in the introductory Department". In 1829, both Gansevoort and Herman transferred to Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School , and Herman enrolled in the English Department on September 28. "Herman I think is making more progress than formerly," Allan wrote in May 1830 to Major Melvill, "and without being a bright Scholar, he maintains a respectable standing, and would proceed further, if he could only be induced to study more—being
26406-531: Was taking his style seriously". For Delbanco, the style is "overheated in the manner of Poe, with sexually charged echoes of Byron and The Arabian Nights ". On May 31, 1839, Gansevoort, then living in New York City, wrote that he was sure Herman could get a job on a whaler or merchant vessel. The next day, he signed aboard the merchant ship St. Lawrence as a "boy" (a green hand ), which cruised from New York to Liverpool. Redburn: His First Voyage (1849) draws on his experiences in this journey; at least two of
26569-417: Was unwilling to compromise, some analysts' later evaluations of the incident postulated that Rockefeller's absence prevented the situation from deteriorating. Negotiations broke down, as Oswald was unwilling or unable to make further concessions to the inmates. Oswald and members of the observers committee called Rockefeller and begged him to come to the prison to calm the situation, but he refused. Following
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