Herman Melville’s seafaring epic Moby-Dick is on its way to being declared the offical book of the state of Massachusetts, USA Today recently reported. Melville wrote the novel while living at a farmhouse (left) in Pittsfield in the Berkshire Mountains, where he was inspired by the view from his study window–Mt. Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts, whose outline is said to look like the shape of a whale.

Moby-Dick‘s lauded status has caused some controversy, particularly from representatives in the town of Concord, which was home to Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.

There is certainly no shortage of literary riches in Massachusetts. It’s the state with the most author houses, five of which are in Concord alone.