Melville II: Books and Providence

What to do to fill those empty shipboard hours? Time to read is one of the things that makes me want to go to sea. (It may be the only thing!) Note Melville's conclusion to Chapter 41:

I was by no means the only reader of books on board the Neversink. Several other sailors were diligent readers, though their studies did not lie in the way of belles-lettres. Their favorite authors were such as you may find at the book-stalls around Fulton Market; they were slightly physiological in their nature. My book experiences on board of the frigate proved an example of a fact which every book-lover must have experienced before me, namely, that though public libraries have an imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much.

Admittedly, the circumstances of my possessing and reading White-Jacket made these words ring especially true: my copy is a 1970 Northwestern Newberry paperback critical edition with a parchment-colored cover featuring prominent coffee stains in the upper left corner. CRAIG KOHLER is fond of sharpies and capital letters, having recorded his ownership of this fine volume on the inside of the front cover. Thomas E. Turpin was more understated in style during his term of ownership, but went overboard in proclamation -- he rubber-stamped his name inside the front cover, inside the back cover, and on the top, right and bottom edges of the book (where the edges of the pages all meet together). I THINK I bought this book at a yard sale for a quarter, along with a companion volume of Mardi (another Melville novel) from the same series, also generously stamped by Mr. Turpin. Somehow, though, Mardi escaped CRAIG KOHLER's sharpie. Must have been an oversight. In any case, thanks to CRAIG KOHLER and Thomas E. Turpin for purchasing, preserving and passing along this excellent work. And thanks to Providence for putting it into my hands!