The announcement sat in my inbox like many local press releases do, the subject line fairly standard.
“Statue Dedication Anchors New Bedford Whaling Museum’s Melville in Our Seaport Weekend Aug. 13-16.”
I scrolled through the email with mild curiosity, mostly because I’m interested in statues. They’re often up forever, and when they’re ugly, it’s unfortunate.
I scanned the message for a picture . . . and then I saw it.
“Oh,” I thought.
What a handsome statue. What a handsome man.
To be crystal clear: the new 7.5-foot Melville statue — which will be unveiled outside the chapel near the museum known as Seamen’s Bethel during a series of celebratory events this weekend — is hot.
The bronze work — depicting an ageless Melville with a wind-swept beard, standing in the hard ribs of a whale — is rugged. Maybe he possesses the spirit of the man Melville could have been if he’d known “Moby-Dick” would become one of the most popular works in the American literary canon. (Melville died before the whale tale became a hit.)
Oneonta, N.Y., sculptor Stefanie Rocknak, who was chosen by the City of New Bedford from a pack of artists for this job, said I am not the first to notice that her depiction of Melville is very attractive.
The final version of her work has been kept secret for a more dramatic unveiling, but when Rocknak briefly revealed the head for a moment during the installation, a woman passed by — “and she said, ‘You made him really handsome,’ ” Rocknak said. “And I’m like, ‘Good, yeah, I’m glad.’ ”
Rocknak said she didn’t round up when it came to Melville’s looks. Unlike some of her other subjects, he was handsome — which is why she made him seem like the kind of guy who, in my opinion, could stare into your soul and then kiss you until you forget your own name.
You can tell by the way his hand clutches the whale bone beneath him.
“He was very meticulous about his appearance, as well,” Rocknak said. “Very well groomed. I don’t know if he would have approved of his beard going all over the place the way that I have [it], and his clothes blowing in the wind.”
He would approve, I assured Rocknak. It’s not a disheveled look at all; it’s the look of a man who has seen the world — who wants more. Who desires experience and passion.
“He’s on a granite base too,” Rocknak said. “It’s large, 18 inches thick. It’s solid. Came from Maine, the granite.”
To be clear: I never thought much about Melville’s appearance, not even when I attended one of the Whaling Museum’s annual 24-hour readings of “Moby-Dick,” an activity I highly recommend.
But a few years ago, a friend reminded me of the way Melville writes about love — men loving men, men feeling emotional about the world.
Then I fell down a rabbit hole, looking to see if Melville wrote love letters (my main interest in life), and of course he did, most notably to Nathaniel Hawthorne about how much he loved his work. (Please read the Literary Hub report on Melville’s adoration of Hawthorne. Melville would have probably had some intense questions for the Love Letters advice column.)
As a relationship writer, I am also interested in the details of Melville’s marriage — and a possible affair he had with a woman in the Berkshires (this is the point of the book “Melville in Love: The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick” by Michael Shelden).
The point is, I have known that Melville was an emotional man searching for love out of reach. But the old, yellowing pictures of him in museums and libraries don’t show this to me.
This statue does.
Amanda McMullen, president of the Whaling Museum, said she doesn’t mind if a takeaway of this weekend’s celebration is that the statue is attractive. She will admit there’s something about it.
“I don’t know that I can comment on whether or not he’s hot or not, but I will say there is a vibrancy to this statue that you don’t typically see,” she said. “It’s very dynamic, and he does have windblown hair.”
She continued, “I mean, he understood the power of New Bedford through immigration in the 1800s in a way that I’d like to hope we still could hold on to today. He just had a deep appreciation for a range of people and ethnicities and cultures, and that I think was what some of his writing really articulated — how much he valued what he learned about other countries and cultures and communities.”
Rocknak warned me the sculpture will look a bit green when it’s revealed. I don’t care.
I do like the raw clay. It’s very . . . bare.
I told Rocknak that for the first time, because of this sculpture, I’ve longed for a Melville biopic. I can’t quite count Ron Howard’s “In the Heart of the Sea,” in which Melville is played by Ben Whishaw, because the movie’s not really about him.
The artist had no casting ideas.
But McMullen did.
“We had actor Steven Weber here last year reading in our [”Moby-Dick”] marathon — [he] was extraordinary,” she said. “He was so exceptionally talented reading the final chapter, and got a roaring approval from deep, diehard Melville fans with the way he brought those words to life, so I throw him right up there.”
But Weber, 65, is not the right age. I’d prefer a film that focuses on the awkward era after “Moby-Dick” was released but wasn’t well-received. Maybe a Melville in his mid-30s.
There’d be anguish, pain, highs and lows, etc.
You may ask: Is this report on a statue showing Melville’s handsomeness worth the space? Perhaps you’re wondering: “Is the analysis of an attractive statue a necessary conversation?”
I must say, rather defensively, that the One Special Thing column in the Globe is designed to celebrate a bright moment in the world — art, food, nostalgic entertainment, music that makes a moment.
The world is relentless right now, and we must celebrate happiness and pleasure where we can find it.
This statue of Herman Melville is hot. Let yourself have this.
Actor Sam Waterston will read Chapter 9 of “Moby-Dick” to celebrate the dedication of the Melville statue on Friday, Aug. 14, at 11 a.m. at Seaman’s Bethel.
