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29-573: Typee was Melville's most popular work during his lifetime; it made him notorious as the "man who lived among the cannibals". From the beginning there were questions about Melville's romantic tale. The London publisher John Murray wanted reassurance that Melville's experiences were first-hand before he included the book in the Home and Colonial Library series, which was nonfiction by or about foreigners in exotic places. Warm but sometimes skeptical reviews also challenged Melville's account. Not long after

58-589: A Cruise Made to the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. Frigate Essex from 1815, and Charles S. Stewart, A Visit to the South Seas in the U.S. ship Vincennes from 1831. Typee ' s narrative expresses a great deal of sympathy for the so-called savages, and even interrogates the use of that word, while focusing the most criticism on European marauders and various missionaries' attempts to evangelize: It may be asserted without fear of contradictions that in all

87-659: A scene in Chapter Two where the Dolly is boarded by young women from Nukuheva, Melville originally wrote: Our ship was now given up to every species of riot and debauchery. Not the feeblest barrier was interposed between the unholy passions of the crew and their unlimited gratification. The second sentence was removed from the final version. The discovery in 1983 of thirty more pages from Melville’s working draft manuscript led Melville scholar John Bryant to challenge earlier conclusions about Melville's writing habits. He describes

116-528: Is a lively and pleasant book, not over philosophical perhaps." In 1939, Charles Robert Anderson published Melville in the South Seas in which he elaborated on a number of Melville's likely sources in supplementing his work and also documented the existence of an affidavit from the Captain of the Acushnet . If the date provided by the Captain can be considered accurate, Anderson concludes that Melville's stay in

145-576: The Wisdom of the East book series. Competitor Smith, Elder & Co. was acquired in 1917. His son Sir John Murray V (1884–1967), grandson John Murray VI (John Arnaud Robin Grey Murray, known as Jock Murray ; 1909–1993) and great-grandson John Murray VII (John Richmond Grey Murray; 1941–) continued the business until it was taken over. In 2002, John Murray was acquired by Hodder Headline , which

174-648: The Hachette UK brand. The business was founded in London , England, in 1768 by John Murray (1737–1793), an Edinburgh -born Royal Marines officer, who built up a list of authors including Isaac D'Israeli and published the English Review . John Murray the elder was one of the founding sponsors of the London evening newspaper The Star in 1788. He was succeeded by his son John Murray II , who made

203-619: The Library of America series, titled Typee, Omoo, Mardi (May 6, 1982), was a volume containing Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life , its sequel Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847), and Mardi, and a Voyage Thither (1849). John Murray III John Murray III (1808–1892) was a British publisher, third of the name at the John Murray company founded in London in 1777. The eldest son of John Murray II (1778–1843) by Anne Elliott, daughter of Charles Elliot,

232-413: The "Typee Valley" part of the island would have been merely "four weeks, or possible eight weeks at the most." However, in trying to determine the end date of Melville's stay, Anderson primarily relies on Melville's own internal accounts of various events, for instance that he was rescued from the valley on a "Monday." In summing up his view of Typee , Anderson writes: For the general student of Melville,

261-656: The 1845 second edition of Darwin's Journal of Researches from his travels on HMS  Beagle . John Murray III also started the Murray Handbooks in 1836, a series of travel guides from which modern-day guides are directly descended. The rights to these guides were sold around 1900 and subsequently acquired in 1915 by the Blue Guides . His successor Sir John Murray IV (1851–1928) was publisher to Queen Victoria . Among other works, he published Murray's Magazine from 1887 until 1891. From 1904, he published

290-538: The Edinburgh publisher, he was born on 16 April 1808. When he was four years old his father moved the firm to 50 Albemarle Street, which became a meeting-place for men of letters. He was educated at Charterhouse School and Edinburgh University , where he graduated in 1827. He completed his education by foreign travel, in Weimar delivering the dedication of Lord Byron 's Marino Faliero to Goethe . There resulted

319-559: The Pacific, which, in many quarters, were received with incredulity, the thought occurred to me, of indeed writing a romance of Polynesian adventure, and publishing it as such; to see whether, the fiction might not, possibly be received for a verity: in some degree the reverse of my previous experience. Typee was published first in London by John Murray on February 26, 1846, and then in New York by Wiley and Putnam on March 17, 1846. It

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348-485: The annals of literature. Byron had given him the manuscript of his personal memoirs to publish later on. Together with five of Byron's friends and executors, he decided to destroy Byron's manuscripts because he thought the scandalous details would damage Byron's reputation. With only Thomas Moore objecting, the two volumes of memoirs were dismembered and burnt in the fireplace at Murray's office. It remains unknown what they contained. John Murray III (1808–1892) continued

377-416: The book's publication, however, many of the events described were corroborated by Melville's fellow castaway, Richard Tobias Greene ("Toby"). Researchers later discovered an affidavit from the ship's captain that corroborated that Melville and Greene did indeed desert the ship on the island in the summer of 1842. Typee can be seen as a kind of proto-anthropology. Melville continually admits vast ignorance of

406-595: The business and published Charles Eastlake's first English translation of Goethe's Theory of Colours (1840), David Livingstone 's Missionary Travels (1857), and Charles Darwin 's Origin of Species (1859). Murray III contracted with Herman Melville to publish Melville's first two books, Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847) in England; both books were presented as nonfiction travel narratives in Murray's Home and Colonial Library series, alongside such works as

435-423: The cases of outrages committed by Polynesians, Europeans have at some time or other been the aggressors, and that the cruel and bloodthirsty disposition of some of the islanders is mainly to be ascribed to the influence of such examples. [The] voluptuous Indian, with every desire supplied, whom Providence has bountifully provided with all the sources of pure and natural enjoyment, and from whom are removed so many of

464-464: The culture and language he is describing while also trying to bolster and supplement his own experiences with wide reading and research. He also employs hyperbole and humor. Starting in the 1930s, scholars in the Melville revival questioned Melville's account. For instance, the length of stay on which Typee is based is presented as four months, and this was an exaggeration of Melville's actual stay on

493-406: The detailed analysis and verification of these matters... probably reveals an accuracy scarcely to be expected. Without hesitation it can be said that in general this volume presents faithful delineation of the island life and scenery in precivilization Nukahiva, with the exception of numerous embellishments and some minor errors... All of the initial back and forth that Melville experienced regarding

522-502: The factuality of Typee may have had a chastening effect on him, as Anderson considers his next work, the book's sequel Omoo , "the most strictly autobiographical of all Melville's works." But this second book also seems to have met with some skepticism, so that for his third book Mardi , Melville declares in the preface that he has decided to write a work of fiction under the supposition (half-joking) he might finally be believed: Not long ago, having published two narratives of voyages in

551-479: The firm. His own publishing projects included: Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published by Murray in 1859. An enterprise of a different kind was The Speaker's Commentary (1871–81), prompted by John Evelyn Denison . Murray's Magazine , started in 1887, ran to 1891. The firm published numerous illustrated books of travels. Murray had been well-connected in the literary world since his early days. He

580-486: The ills and pains of life—what has he to desire at the hands of Civilization? Will he be the happier? Let the once smiling and populous Hawaiian islands, with their now diseased, starving, and dying natives, answer the question. The missionaries may seek to disguise the matter as they will, but the facts are incontrovertible. The Knickerbocker called Typee "a piece of Münchhausenism ." New York publisher Evert Augustus Duyckinck wrote to Nathaniel Hawthorne that "it

609-532: The island. There is also not a lake where Melville might have gone canoeing with Fayaway. To flesh out his narrative, Melville used several source books from which he took passages and rewrote them. The most important of these source books are William Ellis , Polynesian Researches from 1833, George H. von Langsdorff , Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World from 1813, David Porter , Journal of

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638-617: The publishing house important and influential. He was a friend of many leading writers of the day and launched the Quarterly Review in 1809. He was the publisher of Jane Austen , Sir Walter Scott , Washington Irving , George Crabbe , Mary Somerville and many others. Murray's home and office at 50 Albemarle Street in Mayfair was the centre of a literary circle, fostered by Murray's tradition of "four o'clock friends", afternoon tea with his writers. Murray's most notable author

667-616: The research for a series of books for tourists, the Murray's Handbooks for Travellers . In 1836 Murray saw through the press the first of the handbooks, his own Holland, Belgium, and the Rhine ; and three more were written by himself. Subsequently, he enlisted specialists: Richard Ford ( A Handbook for Travellers in Spain ), Sir Gardner Wilkinson (Egypt), and Sir Francis Palgrave (North Italy). From 1830 to 1843 Murray helped his father run

696-513: The signet . He left two sons, John and Hallam, who ran the family business, and two daughters. John Murray (publishing house) John Murray is a Scottish publisher, known for the authors it has published in its long history including Jane Austen , Arthur Conan Doyle , Lord Byron , Charles Lyell , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Herman Melville , Edward Whymper , Thomas Robert Malthus , David Ricardo , and Charles Darwin . Since 2004, it has been owned by conglomerate Lagardère under

725-436: The versions of the draft manuscript and of the “radically different physical print versions of the book,” which amount, Bryant concludes, to “one grand, hooded mess.” Since there is no clear way to present Melville’s "final intention," his 2008 book offers a “fluid text” that allows a reader to follow the revisions. made what he called “an exciting new perspective on Melville’s writing process and culture.” The inaugural book of

754-417: Was Lord Byron , who became a close friend and correspondent of his. Murray published many of his major works, paying him over £20,000 in rights. On 10 March 1812, Murray published Byron's second book, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage , which sold out in five days, leading to Byron's observation: "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." On 17 May 1824, Murray participated in one of the most notorious acts in

783-536: Was Melville's first book, and made him one of the best-known American authors overnight. The same version was published in London and New York in the first edition; however, Melville removed critical references to missionaries and Christianity from the second U.S. edition at the request of his American publisher. Later additions included a "Sequel: The Story of Toby" written by Melville, explaining what happened to Toby. Before Typee ' s publication in New York, Wiley and Putnam asked Melville to remove one sentence. In

812-770: Was a magistrate for Surrey , a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London , and known as a member of the Athenæum Club . He died at 50 Albemarle Street on 2 April 1892. After a preliminary service in St. James's, Piccadilly , he was buried on 6 April in the parish church at Wimbledon , where he had resided for nearly 50 years. Murray published anonymously in 1877 (2nd edit. 1878) Scepticism in Geology . Murray married in 1847 Marion, youngest daughter of Alexander Smith, banker, of Edinburgh, and sister of David Smith, writer to

841-590: Was itself acquired in 2004 by the French conglomerate Lagardère Group . Since then, it has been an imprint under Lagardère brand Hachette UK . In 2015, business publisher Nicholas Brealey became an imprint of John Murray. The John Murray Archive was offered for sale to the nation by John Murray VII for £31 million and the National Library of Scotland acquired it, including the manuscript of Charles Darwin 's Origin of Species . On 26 January 2005, it

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