Taghconic; Or Letters and Legends about our Summer Home by (Melville, Herman) Greylock, Godfrey (Smith, J. E. A, 1822-1896) - 1852

Boston: Redding & Co, 1852. First edition. 228 pp. 8vo. Half cloth and marbled paper boards, ex library copy, with markings. First edition. 228 pp. 8vo. "If you come across a little book called 'Taughconic' - look into it and divert yourself with it. Among others, you figure in it, & I also." A travel guide dedicated to the "Summer Ramblers on the Berkshire Hills," which mentions the homes of several authors. The author notes that "upon a little hill, around which the Housatonic makes a graceful curve, is the villa of Oliver Wendell Holmes...Adjoining the estate of Dr. Holmes is that of HERMAN MELLVILLE, who has retired thus far of the sea, where nothing can remind him of the familiar sound of ocean, save the roar of the wind among the forest trees" (p. 15-16). Longfellow's writings on the area are mentioned at multiple times, and other names like that of Emerson appear to give context. Finally there is a six page section devoted to Nathaniel Hawthorne at page 101, whom Melville first encountered in the area in 1850, and they're both mentioned again on pages 212-3.

Melville mentioned this guide to Hawthorne in a letter dated October 25, 1852: "Among others you figure in it, & I also. But you are the most honored, being the most abused, and have the greatest space allotted to you. - It is a 'Guide Book' to the Berkshire." SCARCE. Sealts, Melville's Reading, 478