I’m reading Moby-Dick for the first time, and it’s obvious how much Melville loved words and playing with language.

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.”

So I think it’s fantastic that librarian Matt Kish is in the process of illustrating passages from each page of his edition. Drawing at the rate of one page a day, that’s 552 illustrations—all using found paper like maps, schematics, tables, and repair guides. The results are simply amazing.

Page 074 : I was also aware that being a green hand at whaling, my own lay would not be very large; but considering that I was used to the sea, could steer a ship, splice a rope, and all that, I made no doubt that from all I had heard I should be offered at least the 275th lay — that is, the 275th part of the clear net proceeds of the voyage, whatever that might eventually amount to.

Page 109 : I will have no man in my boat,” said Starbuck, “who is not afraid of a whale.

Read more about the project on Matt’s blog, and view the drawings he’s done so far on his website.