Melvillean

comparative more Melvillean · superlative most Melvillean · alternative Melvillian

1. Associated with the Scottish education reformer Andrew Melville (1545–1622).

   the Melvillean reforms of the 16th century

2. In a manner reminiscent of the writings of Herman Melville (1819–1891), especially the character Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick.

   He had a Melvillean obsession.

plural Melvilleans · alternative Melvillian

1. historicalA supporter of Scottish education reformer Andrew Melville (1545–1622).
2. An admirer or scholar of the works of Herman Melville (1819–1891).

   Reciprocating Melville’s interest in Japan, enthusiastic Japanese Melvilleans have ever pursued his works, through which they seek to understand the cultural background of Western civilization.

   2001, Arimichi Makino, “Melville among Japanese Melvilleans”, in Sanford E. Marovitz, A[thanasios] C. Christodoulou, editors, Melville “among the Nations”: Proceedings of an International Conference, Volos, Greece, July 2–6, 1997, Kent, Oh.: Kent State University Press, →ISBN, section VI (Projection and Reflection), page 520

   2 more examples

   But for me, and apparently for the Melvilleans who every summer trek up Monument Mountain on the first Sunday of August, the mountain has become a monument not to star-crossed Iroquois lovers but to the meeting of Hawthorne and Melville. Starting the easy hike up Monument Mountain on a sunny day in May, I hatch a scheme to come up here on the first Saturday of August, the day before the annual jaunt of the Melvilleans, to leave love notes from “Herman” to “Nathaniel” tacked on trees—just a little something to titillate the literati.

   1998, Ian Marshall, “Greylock and the Whale”, in Story Line: Exploring the Literature of the Appalachian Trail, Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, →ISBN, page 163

   But he no longer dreamed of putting out to sea; his daytime occupation was to make sure duties had been paid on unloaded cargo, and his writing hours were devoted to an 18,000-line poem, Clarel, about a pilgrimage through the desert—the desert!—to various sites in the Holy Land, which few even among Melvilleans can claim to have read.

   2016, Paul La Farge, “Sailors and Scriveners”, in Rebecca Solnit, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, editors, Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, Oakland, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 68