Today in History 10/18

Moby Dick script dustjacket1851: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville was published.

It was an important book in American literature and central to a big step in Ray Bradbury’s screenwriting career. Here’s a video of him speaking about being hired by director John Huston to work in Ireland and write the motion picture script of the classic novel.

A true story inspired the novel. Nathaniel Philbrick wrote a history about it and that is about to become a movie in its own right. Ron Howard’s In The Heart of the Sea opens March 13, 2015.

In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance.  The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.  But that told only half the story.  “In the Heart of the Sea” reveals the encounter’s harrowing aftermath, as the ship’s surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive.  Braving storms, starvation, panic and despair, the men will call into question their deepest beliefs, from the value of their lives to the morality of their trade, as their captain searches for direction on the open sea and his first mate still seeks to bring the great whale down.

Chris Hemsworth stars. Here’s the trailer.

3 thoughts on “Today in History 10/18

  1. And the true story of writing the screenplay for Moby Dick inspired the non-sf Bradbury novel Green Shadows, White Whale

  2. I may be mistaken, but I’ve long been under the impression that I was born on the centenary of MB’s US publication, which according to my sources was November 14th, 1851.

    The October date was its London publication.

  3. Moshe: I’m sure you’re right, but all the post says is that it was published on that date.

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