MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Autograph letter signed (''H. Melville'') to C. F. Smith, Pittsfield, Mass., 5 October 1857. – Autograph letter signed (''H. Melville'') to C. F. Smith, Pittsfield, Mass., 12 October 1857.

MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). Autograph letter signed ("H. Melville") to C. F. Smith, Pittsfield, Mass., 5 October 1857. – Autograph letter signed ("H. Melville") to C. F. Smith, Pittsfield, Mass., 12 October 1857.

One page each, 202 x 122mm (faint ink transfer to both in blank areas).

Melville makes booking arrangements for his first lecture tour. Responding to Smith's invitation to appear in Charlestown, Massachusetts, he advises his correspondent that he would be unable to appear in January as he would still be "engaged at the West. -- If therefore some evening can not be arranged for, earlier in the season, say, about Thanksgiving (which I shall be in Boston) it may be best to defer it till towards the end of the season.” Smith followed up on the 8th suggesting dates in February, to which Melville responded on the 12th that “we shall have to fix upon the 10th of Feb.” At the advice of his friends, Melville, in an effort to repair his finances, embarked on a series of three lecture tours at lyceums throughout the United States. Speaking mostly on the subjects of Roman statuary and sightseeing in Rome, Melville sought to mock the pseudo-intellectual lyceum culture of the time, much to the consternation of his audiences. (See Zach Hutchins, "Herman Melville's Fejee Mermaid, or A Confidence Man at the Lyceum" ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance. Vol 60, No. 1, 2014, pp. 75-109.)