We thought you might find it interesting to compare a recent typical day in your life with a typical day in Herman Melville’s life in 1850. He described his in a letter he wrote to Evert A. Duyckinck on December 13, 1850:
Do you want to know how I pass my time? - I rise at eight - thereabouts - & go to my barn - say good-morning to the horse, & give him his breakfast. (It goes to my heart to give him a cold one, but it can’t be helped) Then, pay a visit to my cow - cut up a pumpkin or two for her, & stand by to see her eat it - for it’s a pleasant sight to see a cow move her jaws - she does it so mildly & and with such a sanctity. - My own breakfast over, I go to my workroom & light my fire - then spread my M.S.S. on the table - take one business squint at it, & fall to with a will. At 2 ½ P.M. I hear a preconcerted knock at my door, which (by request) continues till I rise & go to the door, which serves to wean me effectively from my writing, however interested I may be. My friends the horse & cow now demand their dinner - & I go & give it them. My own dinner over, I rig my sleigh & with my mother or sisters start off for the village - & if it be a Literary World day, great is the satisfaction thereof. - My evenings I spend in a sort of mesmeric state in my room - not being able to read - only now & then skimming over some large-printed book. (Quoted from Correspondence, Herman Melville. Northwestern University Press, 1993, p. 174)
For a brief biography of Herman Melville, click here.
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