Melville’s Billy Budd at 100 highlights the “prose and poem concoction” left unfinished on Melville’s desk at his death in 1891. Posthumously published in 1924, Billy Budd is the story of a young “Handsome Sailor” impressed into the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars in the late 18th century, falsely accused of mutiny, and hanged after a drumhead trial for striking and killing his accuser.

The exhibition is curated  by William Palmer Johnston from his extensive Melville Collection and features more than 50 items, including multiple scholarly editions of the Billy Budd manuscript, illustrations, photographs, dust jackets, movie posters, an opera libretto, playbills, a commemorative stamp, unique fine bindings for limited editions, and original artwork by Barry Moser and Duke Riley.

“The exhibition highlights the progression of the composition, preservation, ‘discovery,’ and ongoing transmission of Melville’s Billy Budd, a singular work of art,” said curator William Palmer Johnston. “The challenging nature of Melville’s unfinished narrative compels us to join in the ongoing struggle to make sense out of the ambiguities and to find meaning in a world of fog and paradox.”