Frank Carlson Library

As he labored on his masterpiece MOBY DICK in 1851, Herman Melville was a popular and charismatic young author. One year later, this Melville--successful, outgoing, knowable--had gone underground. His letters, previously witty and expansive, would, for the rest of his life, be brief and businesslike. He burned manuscripts and letters received, left behind no personal journals, and by 1856 had ceased to write fiction altogether. It is not surprising,...

"Evangeline Hussey has made a home for herself on Nantucket, though she knows she is still an outsider to the island's small, close-knit community, one that by 1849 has started to feel the decline of a once-thriving whaling industry. Her husband, Hosea, and the life they built together, was once all she needed-but now Hosea is gone, lost at sea. Evangeline is only able to hold on to his inn, and her place on the island, by employing a curious gift...