Moby Dick author Herman Melville, for some reason, absolutely hated The Romance of Yachting: Voyage the First by Joseph C Hart.

In a correspondence with editor Evart A Duyckinck, Melville commented, ‘Here’s a book positively turned wrong side out […] on my conscience, the book is an abortion, the mere trunk of a book, minus head arm or leg.’

Duyckinck had asked Melville to review the book for Wiley & Putnam, to which Melville responded, ‘What has Mr Hart done that I should publicly devour him?’