Just 15 minutes north of The Mount in Pittsfield is Arrowhead, the house where Herman Melville lived for his most productive literary years. Named Arrowhead for the Indian arrowheads unearthed around the house during planting season, the house sits at the bottom of Mount Greylock in the Berkshires. While at Arrowhead from 1850 to 1865, Melville wrote his most famous work, "Moby Dick," as well his other novels, including "Pierre" (which he dedicated to Mount Greylock), "The Confidence-Man," and "Israel Potter." He also wrote "The Piazza Tales," a collection of short stories including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby the Scrivener." Frequent visitors included Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Catharine Maria Sedgwick. Although he is now considered a great author, Melville's books did not bring in much money during his lifetime. Finances forced him to sell Arrowhead to his brother and move to New York in 1865.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey or Historic American Engineering Record, HABS MASS,2-PITFI,1-1
