The Melville Society

Established in 1947, the Melville Society is one of the largest international single-author societies with over 700 individual and institutional members. This non-profit organization strives to facilitate and enhance interaction throughout the world concerning the life, associates, works, reputation, and influence of nineteenth-century American novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819-1891). While largely an academic organization, the Melville Society embraces all readers of Melville. The Society's editorial office, located at Hofstra University, publishes Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies. (The research newsletter Melville Society Extracts is no longer printed separately now appears as a regular department in each issue of Leviathan.)

The Society's Executive Committee, openly elected by all members, consists of the Executive Secretary (Mary K. Bercaw Edwards), Treasurer (John Matteson), Editor (John Bryant), Associate Editor (Wyn Kelley), Development Director (Dennis Berthold), and Representatives to the Melville Society Cultural Project (Robert K. Wallace and Christopher Sten), all of whom serve three year terms, as well as the President (currently Carolyn Karcher) and Program Chairs (for MLA and ALA panels), who are elected annually. The Executive Committee coordinates the Society's programs, publications, archive, membership roles, business, and finances.

The Society meets twice a year. Its main business meeting is conducted each December at the Modern Language Association convention, and programs are also conducted in late May at the American Literature Association conference. In addition, the Society sponsors special programs at venues related to Melville's life. In 1991 we conducted a centennial observation of Melville's death in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (where Melville wrote Moby-Dick) and in New York City (where Melville was born and died). In 1997 the Society held its first International Conference in Volos, Greece, and it has held additional international conferences at Mystic Seaport (1999), Hofstra University (2001), Lahaina, Maui (2003), the New Bedford Whaling Museum (2005), and Szczecin, Poland (2007). Our next international conference, titled "Melville and the Mediterranean," will be held in Jerusalem (June 17-21, 2009).

The Society is actively engaged in various outreach projects including the Melville Society Cultural Project and Melville Society Archive (in conjunction with the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Kendall Institute), a Book Exchange program with foreign nations in need of texts, and the Melville Electronic Library (MEL).

For information concerning Melville Society programs and projects, please contact:

Mary K. Bercaw Edwards
P. O. Box 367, Mystic, CT 06255
E-mail: maryk.bercawedwards@mysticseaport.org
Phone: 860-572-5302, ext. 4027
Fax: 860-572-5329 (Attn. Mary K. Bercaw Edwards)

To join the Melville Society, and to receive Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies three times a year, send your $25 check (made out to the Melville Society) to our treasurer:

John Matteson
English Department
John Jay College, CUNY
445 West 59th St.
New York, NY 10019
E-mail matteson151@earthlink.net