Today@Dal

It is a classic whale of tale, but the resurrection of Moby Dick from a critical flop to a literary classic is a pretty compelling story, too, and with a Nova Scotian twist.

Sept. 28 marks the anniversary of the death of author Herman Melville in 1891, an underappreciated writer and poet at the time of his passing.

Moby Dick may also have languished, underappreciated and out of print, had it not been for the efforts of a Dalhousie University professor named Archibald MacMechan.

Bruce Greenfield, who teaches in the university's English Department, devotes an entire seminar to Melville and Moby Dick.

He acknowledges his past colleague's efforts to revive interest in Moby Dick, which was published in 1851, and panned by most reviewers of the day.

"[MacMechan] believed the book was unjustly forgotten," Greenfield says. "He contacted Melville, before he died, and tried unsuccessfully to convince him that it wasn't too late."

MacMechan, a well-regarded literary reviewer whose students included Lucy Maud Montgomery and Helen Creighton, wrote a piece about Moby Dick in 1899 called "The Best Sea Story Ever Written."

To read more (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/moby-dick-herman-melville-archibald-macmechan-1.3247563)