H. Melville at the Overlook Mountain House in the Catskills, August 1890

Catskill Mountains from the top of Overlook Mountain Woodstock, NY
Photo by: L. Andrews via Livin' Life with Lori

On August 10, 1890, as documented by Jay Leyda in The Melville Log (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1951), Herman Melville wrote Havelock Ellis in Redhill, Surrey, England:

"I have been away from town, a wanderer hardly reachable for a time..."

The letter to Ellis is collected in the 1993 Northwestern-Newberry edition of Melville's Correspondence, ed. Lynn Horth, pages 528-529. 

Regarding Melville's unspecified whereabouts, Hershel Parker guessed "Fire Island?" in Herman Melville: A Biography Volume 2, 1851-1891 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002) page 901. "Herman Melville and family" were indeed listed as registered guests at the Surf Hotel on Fire Island Beach, according to a column in the Brooklyn NY Daily Standard Union of July 1, 1890 headed "Summer Resort Notes."

Top of the Overlook Cliff, looking west.
Stereograph by D. J. Auchmoody via NYPL Digital Collections

By August, however, Melville was in the Catskills, seemingly on his own this time, as witnessed twice in the Special Correspondence of the Troy Daily Times.

On August 8, 1890, only a couple of days before the reply to Havelock Ellis quoted above, "H. Melville" of New York was named first in a list of "prominent arrivals" at "the Overlook" (presumably meaning the popular Overlook Mountain House) near Woodstock in Ulster County, New York. Compiled by an unidentified newspaper correspondent, the unsigned list of notable tourists starting with "H. Melville" appeared in the Troy Daily Times on Monday afternoon, August 11, 1890. Evidently Herman Melville had been out of reach during the first week of August 1890 because he was wandering in the Catskills, enjoying the "clear air and noble views" from the summit of Overlook Mountain.

An earlier sighting of "H. Melville" in the Catskills appeared in the Troy Daily Times on August 4, 1890 under the heading "At a Breezy Outlook."

Troy Daily Times - August 4, 1890
via fultonhistory.com

At a Breezy Outlook.

Special Correspondence of the Troy Daily Times.

OVERLOOK, Aug. 2.-- Guests welcomed at the breezy Overlook Mountain house recently include: Miss Mary A. Mason, Binghamton, N. Y.; Nathaniel A. Bronson, Waterbury, Conn.; Dr. B. F. Crane, New York; C. S. Newell and wife, Goshen, N. Y.; H. Wolff and son, Andrew Purdy, A. S. Underhill and wife, New York; C. B. Ellsworth, Irvington; Mrs. M. J. Downing, Miss K. Butler, New York; William Wilkins and wife, Baltimore, Md.; S. L. Roberts, C. M. Hilton, Hamilton Ryan, J. H. Auringer and daughter, H. Melville, George G. Betts, New York; Mrs. J. M. Vandegrift, Miss Florence C. Hall, Henry Cleaver, Delaware.

Eleven years before, also in early August, Melville's wife Elizabeth and their daughters had visited the Overlook Mountain House. In 1879 they "enjoyed themselves so much that Herman thought about joining them there" as related by Hershel Parker in the second volume of Herman Melville: A Biography, page 841. Again in 1882, Herman "hoped to get away for a week's vacation soon, to join Lizzie at the Overlook," as reported by his sisters Helen and Frances Priscilla (Melville Log Volume 2, page 781). It's good to learn Herman Melville got to experience the exhilarating mountain air and views in 1890, too--little more than one year before his death on September 28, 1891.

The New York Sun - August 17, 1890
via genealogybank.com

The August 8th sighting of "H. Melville" in the Catskills is transcribed below from the Troy Daily Times of August 11, 1890; both of the 1890 mentions featured herein were found in Thomas M. Tryniski's great archive of old newspaper pages at fultonhistory.com

Troy Daily Times - August 11, 1890
via fultonhistory.com

From an Overlook.

Special Correspondence of the Troy Daily Times.

WOODSTOCK, Ulster county, N. Y., Aug. 8.

--The following are some of the prominent arrivals at the Overlook during the last week:

H. Melville, S. L. Roberts, J. H. Van Amringe, New York; J. E. Lasher, wife and daughter, Rondout; Miss Prior, Cambridge, England; H. C. Harney, New York; S.W. Williams, Philadelphia, R. W. Gebbart, New York; F. McWasher, Chicago; David Mixsell and family, Easton, Penn.; James C. de La Mare and daughter, New York; Hon. John M. Thayer, Norwich, Conn.; James R. Macpherson, Mrs. M. E. Burnett, Mrs. G. de Almagro, Franklin Haines and family, New York; George P. Way and wife, Philadelphia; Isaac Pruyn, Catskill.

The clear air and noble views from this summit attract the people.

Path to the Overlook - New Summer Resort in the Catskill Mountains
Stereograph by D. J. Auchmoody via NYPL Digital Collections

A fine 19th century description of the beautiful scenery, healthful air and matchless vistas Melville would have enjoyed at the Overlook Mountain House can be found in Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester's History of Ulster County, New York (Philadelphia, 1880) on page 323:

IX. SUMMER HOTELS.

To accommodate the increasing tide of summer travel several hotels have been erected. The principal one catering to the wants of the throng who push their way into these mountains during the hot months in search of health and pleasure is located upon the commanding summit of Overlook Mountain. It is known as the Overlook Mountain House, James Smith proprietor. The site of this hotel is the most delightful in the country. The Overlook Mountain forms a part of the celebrated Catskills, and is one of the highest peaks of the range. The house is at an elevation of three thousand feet above tide-water, five hundred feet higher than any other hotel on the Catskills or in the State of New York, the only point that gives an unbroken view to all points of the compass. The views are unequaled in the country for beauty and extent; the vision covers the States of Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, embracing an area of 30,000 square miles and one hundred miles of the valley of the Hudson. The atmosphere is very invigorating, and has been found a sure remedy for hay-fever and chills and fever. The thermometer ranges from 15 to 20 degrees below New York City. Three miles north of the house are a succession of wild and picturesque falls in the Plattekill Clove, an historical pass used by the French and Indians in their attacks upon the early settlers of the valley of the Hudson from their fort in Tory Swamp, near the top of the mountain.