5. STARBUCKS COFFEE IS NAMED AFTER ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS.
In honor of Captain Ahab’s vessel, the world’s largest coffeehouse company was almost named Pequod. Co-founder Gordon Bowker really liked this idea, but his creative partner Terry Heckler was much less enthusiastic. “No one’s going to drink a cup of Pee-quod,” he said. Instead, the company christened itself after Mr. Starbuck, Ahab’s first mate and an oft-ignored voice of reason.(Credits: http://mentalfloss.com) 4. ONLY 3715 COPIES WERE EVER PURCHASED DURING MELVILLE’S LIFETIME. By comparison, Typee—his first novel—sold three times as many. In the states, Melville’s total earnings from Moby-Dick amounted to a paltry $556.37. His literary career more or less over, the writer returned to New York, where he became a customs inspector in 1863. (Credits: http://mentalfloss.com) 3. ANOTHER SPERM WHALE ATTACK OCCURRED THE SAME YEAR MOBY-DICK WAS PUBLISHED. On August 20, 1851, a New Bedford, Massachusetts whaling vessel called the Ann Alexander met a similar end to the Essex. According to the 1902 book Sunk by a Whale, "The whale struck the ship about two feet from the keel ... knocking a great whole entirely through her bottom, through which the water roared and rushed in impetuously. ... The ship sank rapidly, all effort to keep her afloat proving futile." Just three months later, on November 14, Moby-Dick was released in the U.S. “It is really & truly a surprising coincidence—to say the least,” Melville wrote in a reply to an acquaintance's letter about the Ann Alexander not long before the book made its stateside debut. “I make no doubt it is Moby Dick himself, for there is no account of his capture after the sad fate of the Pequod … Ye Gods! What a commentator is this Ann Alexander whale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster.” (Credits: http://mentalfloss.com) 2. MELVILLE MOVED WHILE WRITING IT. The author started penning Moby-Dick in 1850 while living at the family's New York City home. That summer, Melville relocated to Pittsfield, Massachusetts; he finished Moby-Dick in the spring of 1851. (Credits: http://mentalfloss.com) 1. TWO WHALES HELPED INSPIRE THE STORY. The character of Moby Dick is larger than life, but this is an instance where truth is as strange (if not stranger) than fiction. The white whale is based on a real-life cetacean called Mocha Dick. Named after the Chilean island of Mocha (near which the beast was first encountered), he was an albino sperm whale with a formidable reputation. Over 70 feet long, the mammal was famous for swimming gently next to the whaling boats. On the first sign of aggression, however, the whale would spring into action and try to destroy any boat that attacked him. When the notorious animal was finally brought down circa 1839, at least 19 harpoons were found lodged in his sides. The following year, The Knickerbocker Magazine ran an article entitled “Mocha Dick: or The White Whale of the Pacific.” For his novel, Melville would replace the word “Mocha” with “Moby” (though no one is sure why). But the tale was also heavily influenced by an event that had taken place in the south Pacific over a decade before Mocha Dick’s demise. On November 20, 1820, a Nantucket whaling ship called the Essex was rammed and sunk by a different angry sperm whale. The 20-man crew survived the assault by climbing onto three rowboats, but their troubles were just beginning. With minimal supplies, the men drifted for four months and over 3000 miles. Most of them died en route, and those who didn’t cannibalized the deceased before being rescued near Chile. (Credits: http://mentalfloss.com) Watch "Moby Dick" Movie Trailer Click here
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