The Melville Electronic Library (MEL): A Digital Critical Archive

FAIN: RQ-50837-14

Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY 11549-1000)
John L. Bryant (Project Director: January 2014 to December 2021)

Continued development of the Melville Electronic Library (MEL), a born digital, open source critical archive, including editing of text and images, annotation of Melville's Civil War poetry, and completion for publication on the website of three major Melville works. (36 months)

The proposed project will continue to develop the Melville Electronic Library, a critical archive containing linked editions of all versions of Melville's works and digital tools for linking MEL texts to materials related to Melville's life, art collection, library, sources, and adaptations. As a primary resource for online Melville studies, MEL is designed to be a model for any critical archive seeking to promote interactive research and scholarly editing. During the grant period, MEL will integrate tertiary editing into TextLab’s graphic display and develop our metadata, Administrative Site, and research workspace, Melville ReMix. MEL’s Art, History, and Travel groups will annotate texts and images, while the Editions group will complete the transcription of the Billy Budd manuscript. We will launch our three model editions of Moby-Dick, Battle-Pieces, and Billy Budd, and make TextLab available for external adoption. We will also begin editing Typee, Redburn, and Weeds & Wildings.

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