Magazine Writings

A page in progress, for reading and research...

Critical texts for most items below are available in Piazza Tales and other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860, volume 9 in the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of the Writings of Herman Melville.  Israel Potter is volume 8 in the series.

Newspaper Fiction

Democratic Press, and Lansingburgh Advertiser

Fragments from a Writing Desk, No. 1 --May 4, 1839
Fragments from a Writing Desk, No. 2 --May 18, 1839

Library holdings: originals at Lansingburgh Historical Society. On microfilm at the Troy Public Library and New York State Library in Albany.

Authentic Anecdotes of Old Zack in Yankee Doodle, University of Chicago volume at HathiTrust.org and Google Books. And look at the library card in the back: Walter Blair borrowed it in November 1929! Teaching then and working on his PhD.

*Book Reviews / Essays

Etchings of a Whaling Cruise --NY Literary World 1, March 6, 1847.  University of Minnesota volume at Google Books. Melville's review of Browne's Etchings is available online at Melvilliana.
 
Mr Parkman's Tour --NY Literary World 4, March 31, 1849. Online text available at Melvilliana.

Cooper's New Novel --NY Literary World 4, April 28, 1849. Hathi Trust Digital Library has Northwestern University volume with bookplate of New Bedford Free Public Library. Melvilliana has online text of Cooper's New Novel.

A Thought on Book-Binding --NY Literary World 6, March 16, 1850. Hathi Trust Digital Library has Princeton University volume. Melvilliana has online text of A Thought on Book-Binding.

Hawthorne and His Mosses --The Literary World 7 - August 17, 1850 and August 24, 1850

Part 1: August 17, 1850 - Princeton volume, digitized by Google Books

Part 2: August 24, 1850 - Princeton volume, digitized by Google Books

Online texts of Hawthorne and His Mosses are available via University of Virginia; and and also at the Hawthorne in Salem site.

Collected also in The Apple-tree Table and Other Sketches (Princeton University Press, 1922).

*Norman E. Hoyle suggested in 1960 that as Evert Duyckinck's "Far West specialist," Melville wrote The Western Trail and other reviews of western books in the Literary World.

Bartleby, the Scrivener. A Story of Wall Street

Part 1. November 1853 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 2 (November 1853): 546–550

Part 2. December 1853   Putnam's Monthly Magazine 2 (December 1853): 609–616

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! in Harper's New Monthly Magazine 8 (December 1853): 77-86

The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles

Sketches 1-4 March 1854 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 3 (March 1854): 311-319

Sketches 5-9 April 1854 (skips number 6; Norfolk Isle and the Chola Widow is Sketch Ninth) Putnam's Monthly Magazine 3 (April 1854): 345-355

Sketches 10-11 May 1854 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 3 (May 1854): 460-466

The Two Temples (rejected by Putnam's, May 12, 1854)

Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs Harper's New Monthly Magazine 9  (June 1854): 95-101

The Happy Failure. A Story of the River Hudson  Harper's New Monthly Magazine  (July 1854): 196-199

The Lightning-Rod Man Putnam's Monthly Magazine 4 (August 1854): 131-134

The Fiddler Harper's New Monthly Magazine (September 1854): 536-539

Israel Potter; or, Fifty Years of Exile 

Part 1. July 1854 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 4 (July 1854):66-75
Part 2. August 1854 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 4 (August 1854): 135-146
Part 3. September 1854 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 4 (September 1854): 277-290
Part 4. October 1854 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 4 (October 1854): 371-378
Part 5. November 1854 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 4 (November 1854): 481-491 
Part 6. December 1854 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 4 (December 1854): 592-601
Part 7. January 1855 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 5 (January 1855): 63-71
Part 8. February 1855 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 5 (February 1855): 176-182
Part 9. March 1855 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 5 (March 1855): 288-294

The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids Harper's New Monthly Magazine 10 (April 1855): 670-678

The Bell-Tower Putnam's Monthly Magazine 6 (August 1855): 123-130

Benito Cereno

Part 1. October 1855 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 6 (October 1855): 353-367

Part 2. November 1855 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 6 (November 1855): 459-473

Part 3. December 1855 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 6 (December 1855): 633-644

Jimmy Rose Harper's New Monthly Magazine 11 (November 1855): 803-807

The 'Gees Harper's New Monthly Magazine 12 (March 1856): 507-509

I and My Chimney Putnam's Monthly Magazine 7 (March 1856): 269-283

The Apple-Tree Table; or, Original Spiritual Manifestations. Putnam's Monthly Magazine 7 (May 1856): 465-475