Krone honors the
writing of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick with a stunning writing
instrument. The barrel is Mammoth Ivory, which is at least 10,000 years
old. The rich, delicate,
sepia-colored scrimshaw artwork is a portrait of Herman Melville as well
as a scene from the Moby Dick story. The cap is made with African Zebra
wood panels framed by Briarwood. Trimming the top and bottom of the cap
there are hand-wrapped insets of antiqued twine, simulating a ship’s
rigging. On the top of the cap, set into the Briarwood, is a Mammoth
Ivory disk with a Compass Rose done in scrimshaw. The blind cap has a
bronze band with Herman Melville’s signature deeply engraved.
Herman Melville’s
epic novel Moby Dick. Completed in 1850, it drew heavily on Melville’s
experiences as a young man when he spent four years at sea on whaling
ship as a common sailor. The book is rich in details about the operation
of a New England whaling vessel, but also tackles the large theme of
searching for meaning in the existential void symbolized by the ocean.
Furthermore, the hunt for the great white whale serves as a metaphor for
man’s search for meaning in a world rife with deception and delusion.
Ishmael serves as
the book’s narrator and comes aboard the Pequod as a common sailor who
has no ties to the land and had disavowed all privilege based on skin
color or money. He chooses to associate with the meanest sailors on the
earth’s oceans. Ishmael is interested in exploring the sea and views the
white whale, Moby Dick, as a mystery to be pursued and studied. This
view stands in stark contrast to Captain Ahab, whose purpose in the
Pequod’s voyage is simple revenge. He lost a leg to the white whale and
is intent on killing the beast. His rigid obsession ultimately dooms the
ship and its crew. When the Pequod is sunk during its cataclysmic battle
with Moby Dick, Ishmael is the lone survivor, the one who lives to tell
the harrowing tale.
Moby Dick, or The
Whale was officially published in New York on November 1, 1851. Harper’s
had 2915 copies printed for the first run and the retail price was
$1.50. The book was dedicated to Melville’s great friend, Nathanial
Hawthorne and inscribed as follows: In token of my admiration for his
genius, this book is inscribed to Nathanial Hawthorne.
In its time Moby
Dick was not a commercial success. After a series of mediocre reviews it
sold only 1500 copies in its first month on the stands, 2300 copies in
the next year and 5500 over the next half-century. Melville’s lifetime
earnings from one of the acknowledged masterworks of the English
language totaled $1260. However, the decades have been kind to Melville
and to Moby Dick and today it is recognized as a work of genius, far
ahead of its time in terms of themes and the multi-layered nature of the
narrative. It compares favorably to some of the world’s most powerful
books. All from the pen of a young man who had barely attended school
past the 12th grade and became the most formidable writer of his time.
