On October 9, 2008, the Massachusetts House of Representatives approved a bill (H 3964) making Herman Melville's Moby Dick the official “epic novel” of Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As originally drafted, the bill would have made Moby Dick the commonwealth’s official book, but supporters of Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott, it appears, succeeded in having it modified in committee. The designation would have been added to Chapter 2 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but I’ve checked (http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws /GeneralLaws /PartI/TitleI/Chapter2) and it’s not there, so either the Massachusetts Senate failed to pass it or the governor refused to sign it; though on what grounds, literary or other, I have been unable to discover. (Section 49 of Chapter 2, however, does establish that Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey is the official children’s book of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.) - Morris Goldpepper, DDS
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On October 9, 2008, the Massachusetts House of Representatives approved a bill (H 3964) making Herman Melville's Moby Dick the official “epic novel” of Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As originally drafted, the bill would have made Moby Dick the commonwealth’s official book, but supporters of Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott, it appears, succeeded in having it modified in committee. The designation would have been added to Chapter 2 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but I’ve checked (http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws /GeneralLaws /PartI/TitleI/Chapter2) and it’s not there, so either the Massachusetts Senate failed to pass it or the governor refused to sign it; though on what grounds, literary or other, I have been unable to discover. (Section 49 of Chapter 2, however, does establish that Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey is the official children’s book of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.) - Morris Goldpepper, DDS
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