“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”
Today is the 163rd anniversary of the first U.S. edition of Moby-Dick. Apart from the greatest opening line in all of American literature, Herman Melville’s novel gave us Ricardo Montalban’s final words in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Even cooler, though, is that there are whales alive today that were cruising the high seas when Moby-Dick was first published.
Planning on being in New York this weekend? Here’s a schedule of readings to coincide with the anniversary.
