What do you think?
Rate this book
The Divine Magnet: Herman Melville's Letters to Nathaniel Hawthorne
These letters are full of passion, humor, doubt, and spiritual yearning, and offer an intimate view of Melville's personality. Lyrical and effusive, they are literary works in themselves. This correspondence has been out of print for decades, and even when it was in print it appeared in scholarly volumes of Melville's complete correspondence, aimed at the academy. The Divine Magnet will provide the general literary public as well as the college classroom with a reliable and beautifully produced volume of Melville's letters to Hawthorne, along with supplemental material, highlighting the relationship between these luminaries of American letters.
- GenresNonfiction
106 pages, Paperback
Published April 5, 2016
8 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Herman Melville
2,382 books4,515 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 20, 2019
Many letters written over a period of years in the mid-nineteenth century. Nathanial Hawthorne and Herman Melville's affection for each other seems mutual. And it is fascinating to eavesdrop in on discussions about Hawthorne's response to _Moby Dick_, and also Melville's feeling about the Marble Fawn, Blythdale Romance, and Hawthorne's writing overall. One particularly engaging letter covers an idea Melville has for a book that Hawthorne should write. Melville lines out the plot details, but also all the reasons the topic is best for Hawthorne. But, Hawthorne explains all the reasons he cannot write it, and later Melville writes the book. Although I am not certain it was published. Melville's personality and spirit comes across clearly in these wonderful letters.
March 6, 2024
These were a little hard to read, mainly because I find tedious, provincial Hawthorne unworthy of worldly, wild, brave, unhinged Melville. Who knew the hills of Western Mass were home to this celebrity love story? I mean, probably everyone but me.
December 12, 2025
Read it on my period and mourned the power couple that could have been Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne with the burning passion of a thousand suns.
March 9, 2017
ok these letters are BEAUTIFUL and it's nice to have them all in one place etc etc (tho i wish they'd included M's letters to Sophia and Julian) but tbh the peritext is... very weird. the foreword especially has a strange tone and some distracting punctuation; the intro's better, but what few footnotes there are in the letters themselves essentially just repeat pieces of information from the intro. this seems like a stupid complaint to have but it was actually distracting... on the other hand, this isn't an academic edition and it was put out by a nonprofit press, so it's not entirely surprising.
June 5, 2021
The only thing I wish for after reading this, is for more correspondence to be preserved and this book being longer.
August 3, 2022
4 ★ — Yummy, delicious, fantastically homosexual.
February 27, 2025
"I talk all about myself, and this is selfishness and egotism. Granted. But how help it? I am writing to you; I know little about you, but something about myself so I write about myself —at least, to you."
Las cartas que Melville dirigió a Hawthorne no sólo constituyen un testimonio único de la relación entre estos dos padres de la literatura estadounidense –por desgracia, sólo conservamos las diez que aparecen en este volumen–, sino que también suponen una mirada privilegiada a la concepción que Melville tenía del mundo, de la industria editorial y de la labor del escritor. Accedemos a través de ellas a la imagen de un hombre impetuoso, tan pronto intelectual y filosófico como un mero peón afaenado en trabajos manuales; agudamente sarcástico, lleno de energía.
La serie de documentos reunidos en este libro son clave para el estudio de la personalidad del neoyorquino, tan hermética y reservada por lo demás. Melville expone aquí sus reflexiones sobre la maldición del escritor moderno (“though I wrote the Gospels in this century, I should die in the gutter”); la religión (“the reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust his Heart, and fancy all brain like a watch”), y la sinceridad del ser humano (“for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it”). Es, como siempre es Melville, holístico, ambicioso y exhaustivo desde su casi patética honestidad. Un hombre que trasciende sus tiempos en una suerte de eterna vigencia, en gran medida porque, a diferencia de muchos artistas, es plenamente consciente de sus imperfecciones: lejos de darles la espalda, las exprime. Melville se permite compartir con Hawthorne sus inquietudes y preocupaciones respecto a su obra, en particular Moby Dick, y en respuesta al apoyo que su amigo siempre le brinda, proclama: "I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb".
El dúo Melville-Hawthorne quizá haya sido único en la historia literaria. Uno de esos encuentros entre coetáneos que parecen orquestados por el destino. La influencia mutua y las experiencias que compartieron han dejado una huella en la literatura más honda de lo que creemos. Las cartas de Melville se colman de admiración hacia Hawthorne, a quien se dirigía con pasión ferviente, casi febril. Este ímpetu arrollador contrasta con el silencio documental que existe en torno a Hawthorne, cuyas misivas no conservamos, lo que no hace sino acentuar la aparente ausencia de correspondencia emocional a la que Melville aludiera en “Clarel” (...holding him in view / Prior advances unreturned / Not here he recked of, while he yearned – O, now but for communion true / And close; let go each alien theme; Give me thyself!).
Las cartas que Melville dirigió a Hawthorne no sólo constituyen un testimonio único de la relación entre estos dos padres de la literatura estadounidense –por desgracia, sólo conservamos las diez que aparecen en este volumen–, sino que también suponen una mirada privilegiada a la concepción que Melville tenía del mundo, de la industria editorial y de la labor del escritor. Accedemos a través de ellas a la imagen de un hombre impetuoso, tan pronto intelectual y filosófico como un mero peón afaenado en trabajos manuales; agudamente sarcástico, lleno de energía.
La serie de documentos reunidos en este libro son clave para el estudio de la personalidad del neoyorquino, tan hermética y reservada por lo demás. Melville expone aquí sus reflexiones sobre la maldición del escritor moderno (“though I wrote the Gospels in this century, I should die in the gutter”); la religión (“the reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust his Heart, and fancy all brain like a watch”), y la sinceridad del ser humano (“for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it”). Es, como siempre es Melville, holístico, ambicioso y exhaustivo desde su casi patética honestidad. Un hombre que trasciende sus tiempos en una suerte de eterna vigencia, en gran medida porque, a diferencia de muchos artistas, es plenamente consciente de sus imperfecciones: lejos de darles la espalda, las exprime. Melville se permite compartir con Hawthorne sus inquietudes y preocupaciones respecto a su obra, en particular Moby Dick, y en respuesta al apoyo que su amigo siempre le brinda, proclama: "I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb".
El dúo Melville-Hawthorne quizá haya sido único en la historia literaria. Uno de esos encuentros entre coetáneos que parecen orquestados por el destino. La influencia mutua y las experiencias que compartieron han dejado una huella en la literatura más honda de lo que creemos. Las cartas de Melville se colman de admiración hacia Hawthorne, a quien se dirigía con pasión ferviente, casi febril. Este ímpetu arrollador contrasta con el silencio documental que existe en torno a Hawthorne, cuyas misivas no conservamos, lo que no hace sino acentuar la aparente ausencia de correspondencia emocional a la que Melville aludiera en “Clarel” (...holding him in view / Prior advances unreturned / Not here he recked of, while he yearned – O, now but for communion true / And close; let go each alien theme; Give me thyself!).
September 25, 2020
Interesting to pull this collection together this way. Lots of little gems of insight, understanding into Melville and his work. Not really a portrait of a friendship - it's only one side, after all - but so many little nuggets of things that are then developed elsewhere. And nice to have an exemplar of his poetry without having to go read a bunch of it.
March 8, 2025
BEAUTIFUL letters (though I wish they had included some of M's letters to Sophia and Julian), but the weird peritext keeps this from being perfect. the foreword has a really strange tone and punctuation choices. the intro is a bit better. the footnotes are pretty much useless, as they all just rehashed info from the foreword.
August 5, 2020
"In me divine magnanimities are spontaneous and instantaneous - catch them while you can. The world goes round, and the other side comes up. So now I can't write what I felt. But I felt pantheistic then - your heart beat in my ribs and mine in yours, and both in God's"
December 20, 2023
"The divine magnet is in you and my magnet responds"
December 21, 2023
Lord, when shall we be done growing?
love is real and fuck does it hurt
love is real and fuck does it hurt
April 26, 2025
RIP Melville, you would have loved instant messaging.
August 10, 2021
I quite enjoyed the letters. I wish more of their correspondence had survived. But, God, that introduction was painfully awful. I took a whole star off for having to suffer through their rant about atheists in academia. It really had no place in this book.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews