Moby Dick: The Radio Play

Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" has challenged and provoked readers since its publication in 1851, and over the years it has inspired a seemingly endless stream of adaptations in the performing and visual arts. This unique interpretation brings Melville's masterpiece to a radio drama format, where the mind's eye envisions the bizarre odyssey that unites an unlikely collection of personalities into a harrowing hunt for a legendary white whale.

Originally presented in a two-part production on the critically-acclaimed syndicated radio series "Nutmeg Junction," this version moves from the epic sweep of the seagoing adventure into the emotional obsessions that drive the key characters: the adventure-seeking Ishmael, the mystically wise Queequeg, the morally conflicted Starbuck, the emotionally damaged Pip, the recklessly carefree Starbuck and the seething Captain Ahab who steers his ship and crew into a fatal maelstrom. "Moby Dick: The Radio Play" is ideal as leisure reading for Melville lovers and as a springboard for theatrical companies seeking a new spin on a landmark work.

In addition to the play, this e-book includes an original essay by Phil Hall on how numerous artists have approached Melville's work over the decades, along with an article by Hall on how the radio play came to life, an interview with "Nutmeg Junction" creator J. Timothy Quirk on contemporary radio theater, and a foreword on the continued appeal of Melville's work by Jeffrey Peters, PhD, the publisher and editor of the digital magazine The News and Times and the online resource The Encyclopedia of British Romanticism.