May Morning, A Visit to the Country

Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick has permeated culture: the white whale recognizable even by many who've never read the book. It's been retooled into multiple forms, even for all ages - as comic books, pop-up books, as a board book for ages one to three!To some degree, his first novel Typee, written in the Village of Lansingburgh, was like that too. One needn't have bought it to have seen it mentioned in journals or newspapers, to have borrowed it from a lending library (on ship or land), or encountered it in other ways. Like Moby-Dick, Typee too was repurposed for very young readers - and not just by the Classics Illustrated comic book of 1947 that was released about a hundred years after the book was first published and that comic book's later reprints.A much-condensed version of Typee appeared as a tale told by one of the characters in a book for little children, published within three years of Melville's first book hitting shelves. May Morning, or, A Visit to the Country was a book of just fifty-eight small pages with wide margins and large print in which parts of Typee became a story drawn by three inquisitive young children out of a farmer who (within the world of May Morning) had lived it. The author, Mary Hughes, did actually credit Melville and in her introduction she wrote of her intention of cultivating a taste for literature in the young and to "blend instruction with amusement." It is more amusing than one might expect for such a derivative work:

“And what are cannibals?” asked Rose.“People who eat their fellow-creatures,” replied her sister.“And did they eat John?” asked the child with great simplicity.“Oh, you little goosy!” roared out her brother, with a very loud laugh. “If they had eaten him, how could he be here now?”“They might have ate part of him. They might have taken a toe or two, or something of that kind, you know,” returned the little girl, “just by way of taste.”“If they had tasted that much, they would not have left the rest undevoured,” said the quiet Ellen.

Discovered by an alert dealer, Peggy Christian, a juvenile entitled May Morning; or, A Visit to the Country for Little Boys and Little Girls (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1849), includes, as a story told to the children, a retelling of part of Typee, a debt which is acknowledged in a footnote on p. 55. The author was Mrs. Mary Robson Hughs, a friend of Maria Edgeworth’s, who, with her husband Thomas Hughs (or Hughes) of Dundee, emigrated to Philadelphia in 1818, where she conducted an “academy for young ladies” until her retirement in 1839. She wrote numerous juveniles, the best known of which are the “Aunt Mary” series, as well as five novels for adults (Wright I: 1240a-1240e). She acknowledges Typee under its English title, A Narrative of a Four Months’ Residence.Johnson, Richard Colles. "Melville in Anthologies." American Book Collector 21 (Summer 1971). 7-8.T228Hughs, Mary Robson. May Morning; or, A Visit to the Country; For Little Boys and Girls. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blackiston, 1849.In a footnote on p.55, Hughs acknowledges Typee as the direct source for her narrative. See Melville Society Extracts, no. 42 (May 1980): 14.Hayes, Kevin J, and Hershel Parker. Checklist of Melville Reviews. Rev. Ed. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1991. 24.Mary Hughs, the creator of Aunt Mary’s Library, a popular series of children’s books, adapted Typee for boys and girls as May Morning: or, A Visit to the Country.Hayes, Kevin J. The Cambridge Introduction to Herman Melville. Cambridge UP, 2007. 6.

While the existence of May Morning has been noted by Melville scholars for some time now, possibly overlooked has been just how widespread that children's version may have been. It hadn't appeared merely once.May Morning was also included as a story within in Mary Hughes’ Buds and Blossoms for the Young, by the same publisher. On WorldCat, the "world's largest network of library content," copies are listed with dates of 1848, 1851, 1854, 1856, and 1857. Possibly the multiple dates could be attributed to different printings, or perhaps the book lacked the publication date and librarians had entered speculated dates in their catalogs.May Morning was also included as a story within an anthology book credited to another author, and it too appears to have had multiple printings, e.g.:Hillyard, William Heard. The Little Trapper, and Other Stories. Philadelphia: J.E. Potter, 1866.Hillyard, William Heard. The Little Trapper, and Other Stories. New York: James Miller, 1867.Thus it would appear that for a couple decades, and however much longer such books may have remained on homes and libraries' shelves, Melville and his adventures on Nuku Hiva were being introduced to young readers. At least some of them must have gone on to actually read Melville, while others may simply have remembered something about his association with a narrative about cannibals on a Pacific island. How many copies of all those different printings of "May Morning," as an individual book or a story within an anthology, may have been printed? One wonders if at this late date any information whatsoever might still exist that could tell.