October 11, 2012
Scenes from our tenth anniversary party
by Kevin Murphy
Late last month Melville House celebrated its 10th Anniversary at Federal Hall, a New York City landmark from Herman Melville’s era. Federal Hall opened in 1842 as the first U.S. Customs House. Born just blocks away, Melville spent much of his life nearby, including working for the Customs office, a job he called “worse than driving geese,” and his brothers’ law office was literally across the street at 16 Pine — the inspiration for “Bartleby the Scrivener.” Federal Hall is built on the site of the first U.S. capitol building, where George Washington was inaugurated president in 1789. In addition to the historical implications, the night was marked by the presence of many authors, colleagues, and supporters who’ve helped make Melville House a successful publishing outfit over the years.
Inside Federal Hall as the party gets underway …
Above the fray
Halimah Marcus and Benjamin Samuel from Electric Literature along with agent Sylvia Molnar
Carleigh Queenth, Kassie Daughety, Jennifer Ku, Carolyn Vega
Some of the team from our great distributor, Random House: Lane Jantzen, Jeff Abraham, Marcia Baumann, and Chuck Errig
Paul W. Morris from PEN, translator and critic Liesl Schillinger, Guernica editor Joel Whitney, and Lucas Wittmann from Newsweek and The Daily Beast
Melville House how-to authors Dave Tompkins (How to Wreck a Nice Beach) and Christopher Boucher (How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive)
MH author Ed Epstein (The Hollywood Economist, Three Days in May, and the forthcoming Annals of Unsolved Crime)
Publishers Dennis Johnson and Valerie Merians
MH author Steve Stern, publisher Dennis Johnson, Harper’s editor (and MH translator) James Marcus, MH author Lore Segal (Lucinella), and publisher Valerie Merians
The house band rocking out
Dennis Johnson gives a rousing speech
And the audience responds in turn
(most of) The Melville House staff
Celebrating 10 years of rocking the boat
Kevin Murphy is the digital media marketing manager of Melville House.