Crowned and Blindsided, November-December 1851; "Mad Christmas" 1851; The Kraken Version of Pierre, November-December 1851; Melville Crosses the Rubicon, January 1852; Richard Bentley: The Whale and Pierre, January-May 1852; Fool's Paradise and the Furies Unleashed, June-September 1852; The Isle of the Cross, September 1852-June 1853; The Magazinist: Idealist Turned Would-Be Stoic, July1853 -January 1854; The Shift Away from Herman and Arrowhead, January-March 1854; Tortoises and Israel Potter, 1854; "Benito Cereno," Early 1855; The Confidence Man's Masquerade: Melville as National Satirist, June 1855-January 1856; Foreclosing on Friendship: Confession and Shame, February 1856-October 1856; Liverpool and the Levant, Late 1856-February 1857; Rome to Liverpool, and Home, February-April 1857; "Statues in Rome," May 1857-November 1858; "The South Seas," March 1858-Spring 1859; The Poet and the Last Lecture, "Travel," Summer 1859-Early 1860; An Epic Poet on the Meteor, May 1860-October 1860; The Dream of Florence, A State Funeral, and War, November 1860-December 1861; A Humble Quest for an Aesthetic Credo, January-April 1862; Farewell to Arrowhead and the Overthrow of Jehu, April-December 1862; Displacements, January-June 1863; Wartime Second Honeymoon & Manhattan for Good, Summer-Fall 1863; The War Poet's Scout Toward Aldie, 1864; Two Years of War and Dubious Peace, 1865-1866; Battle-Pieces: Poet, Poems, Reviewers, 1866; Domestic Life with a "Psychological Cerberus," 1867; A Snug Harbor for the Melvilles, Late 1867-1868; The Man Who had Known Hawthorne, 1869; West Street and "Jerusalem," 1870; The Last Mustering of the Clan, and "The Wilderness," 1871; Death, Death, and Flight to a Snug Harbor, 1872; A Family in Disarray; & "Mar Saba," 1873; The New Generation and "Bethlehem," 1874-1875; Clarel: Melville's Centennial Epic, 1876; "Old Fogy" and Imaginary Companions, 1877-1880; The Shadow at the Feasts, 1880-1885; Fragments in a Writing-Desk, 1886-1891; In and Out of the House of the Tragic Poet, 1886-1891.
Hershel Parker is the author of Flawed Texts and Verbal Icons and Reading "Billy Budd"; co-editor, with Harrison Hayford, of the landmark 1967 Norton Critical Edition of Moby-Dick, wholly revised in 2001; and Associate General Editor of the Northwestern-Newberry edition of The Writings of Herman Melville. He lives in Morro Bay, California.
A magnificent achievement... Hershel Parker's "magnum opus" is a
magisterial work of retrieval and unflagging scholarship.--Harold
Beaver "Times Literary Supplement "
An awesome achievement, indispensable for all serious Melvillians,
with the vividness of a great Victorian novel and the precision of
the finest historical scholarship.--Robert Faggen "Los Angeles
Times Book Review "
Unquestionably the most searching biography ever written on Herman
Melville.--Philip Weiss "Debra DeLaet "
Hershel Parker set out to write the biography to end all
biographies of Herman Melville, a book in which everything that
could be known about the writer would be pieced out and put on
record... Parker's first volume ends with Melville relishing the
fruit of his impetuousness; the second shows him learning its
price... Parker tells this story with a thoroughness that is
scarcely to be believed... On tour de force is his reconstruction
of the composition of "Pierre"... Equally interesting are Parker's
surmises about works Melville never published that did not
survive... Parker's other achievement is his reconstruction of
Melville's family life... Parker's book has much to teach. In
addition to the many episodes that he fills in or sets straight, he
reminds us just how problematic writing was for Melville, how
shrouded it was in personal risk and cost--and how stubbornly he
kept at this work, even late in life, when he did it almost wholly
in private... Parker also deserves credit for
Parker has constructed from his sources a painstaking chronology of
Melville's life, practically on a day-by-day basis. To this, he
adds a passion for Melville--both the brilliant works and the
beleaguered man. And there are flashes of humor... Not all
biographical subjects merit this level of attention. There's no
disputing that Melville, one of America's greatest writers, does.
Clearly, this monumental biography will prove indispensable to
scholars and serious students of Melville. It contains much that
may prove fascinating to the general reader as well.--Martin Rubin
"San Francisco Chronicle "
The massive biography of Melville by Hershel Parker is an
astonishing achievement. In two volumes of some two thousand large
and tightly printed pages, Parker has overcome many of the
obstacles that have stood, until now, in the way of a full-scale
life... Parker has given every student of Melville a great gift--an
incomparable sourcebook that will be plundered for years... This
[the second volume] is a more powerful book than its
predecessor--and sometimes it is downright gripping... An
enormously illuminating account of... the context in which Herman
Melville lived and worked... One is grateful for Parker's 'more
than several pages.'.--Andrew Delbanco "New Republic "
The publication of the second volume of Hershel Parker's biography
of Herman Melville brings to a close an enterprise of archival and
critical scholarship that has lasted forty years--nearly as long as
Melville's writing career.--Danny Karlin"London Review of Books"
(01/01/2003)
Melville's is a familiar story, but never before has it been told
in such detailed complexity. An author praised initially for all
the wrong reasons ( "Typee" is far more than the adventure story
and travel book it was taken to be), and then rejected for still
worse ones, now emerges with a new clarity... His was, indeed, a
posthumous life, but, thanks to Hershel Parker, one now more
completely revealed in its personal triumphs and
disasters.--Christopher Bigsby "Times Literary Supplement "
Parker's impressive scholarship and a vigorous analysis are cause
for celebration. Too often reviewers misuse the word 'definitive';
not so in this case. The meticulous Parker has practically
reconstructed Melville's DNA and in doing so has rendered American
literature a signal service. Parker recounts Melville's chronic bad
luck, epic writing binges, failed lectures, surreal visions and
troubled marriage. It's a saga of genius refusing to be derailed.
But Parker unearths a plethora of new material, including
previously unknown family correspondence and even the title and
plot of Melville's long-lost novel, "The Isle of the
Cross".--Douglas Brinkley "Los Angeles Times Book Review "
The misery of [Melville's later] years is underscored by the most
authoritative account of them ever: "Herman Melville, A Biography,
Volume 2, 1851-1891, " by Hershel Parker. The book is 1,000 pages
long, a generous monument of research that lovingly details
Melville's reading and his family's activities, and seeks to uplift
his poetry.--Philip Weiss "New York Observer "
[Parker's] exhaustive research yields a wealth of fresh information
about Melville's life... We see in rich detail the comings and
goings of Melville and his family, the vagaries of his literary
reputation, and his shifting moods.--David S. Reynolds "Journal of
American History "
For 40 years, Parker has been charting the seas of Melville's life,
chasing down allusions and illusions... His quest yields some
important discoveries... This is a biographical masterwork about a
rare literary genius.--Daniel Dyer "Cleveland Plain Dealer "
Through prodigious archival research, Parker creates a compelling
narrative out of the last forty years of Melville's life, as he
struggled with the spectre of failure... It is unlikely that a more
searching or truthful biography of Melville will appear in the
foreseeable future; the two volumes Parker has now published on one
of America's finest writers are not only the fullest account we
have of him but, quite probably, the final word.--Richard Gray
"Literary Review "
"[Parker's] exhaustive research yields a wealth of fresh
information about Melville's life... We see in rich detail the
comings and goings of Melville and his family, the vagaries of his
literary reputation, and his shifting moods." -- David S. Reynolds,
Journal of American History
"For 40 years, Parker has been charting the seas of Melville's
life, chasing down allusions and illusions... His quest yields some
important discoveries... This is a biographical masterwork about a
rare literary genius." -- Daniel Dyer, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Hershel Parker set out to write the biography to end all
biographies of Herman Melville, a book in which everything that
could be known about the writer would be pieced out and put on
record... Parker's first volume ends with Melville relishing the
fruit of his impetuousness; the second shows him learning its
price... Parker tells this story with a thoroughness that is
scarcely to be believed... On tour de force is his reconstruction
of the composition of Pierre... Equally interesting are Parker's
surmises about works Melville never published that did not
survive... Parker's other achievement is his reconstruction of
Melville's family life... Parker's book has much to teach. In
addition to the many episodes that he fills in or sets straight, he
reminds us just how problematic writing was for Melville, how
shrouded it was in personal risk and cost -- and how stubbornly he
kept at this work, even late in life, when he did it almost wholly
in private... Parker also deserves credit for filling in the darker
half of Melville's life without making it a melodrama of
misunderstood genius... What we cannot know, but the main thing
this book makes us wonder, is what different life Melville might
have led and what different work he might have done if his talents
had met with a different reception." -- Richard H. Brodhead, New
York Times Book Review
"Melville's is a familiar story, but never before has it been told
in such detailed complexity. An author praised initially for all
the wrong reasons (Typee is far more than the adventure story and
travel book it was taken to be), and then rejected for still worse
ones, now emerges with a new clarity... His was, indeed, a
posthumous life, but, thanks to Hershel Parker, one now more
completely revealed in its personal triumphs and disasters." --
Christopher Bigsby, Times Literary Supplement
"Parker has constructed from his sources a painstaking chronology
of Melville's life, practically on a day-by-day basis. To this, he
adds a passion for Melville -- both the brilliant works and the
beleaguered man. And there are flashes of humor... Not all
biographical subjects merit this level of attention. There's no
disputing that Melville, one of America's greatest writers, does.
Clearly, this monumental biography will prove indispensable to
scholars and serious students of Melville. It contains much that
may prove fascinating to the general reader as well." -- Martin
Rubin, San Francisco Chronicle
"Parker's impressive scholarship and a vigorous analysis are cause
for celebration. Too often reviewers misuse the word 'definitive';
not so in this case. The meticulous Parker has practically
reconstructed Melville's DNA and in doing so has rendered American
literature a signal service. Parker recounts Melville's chronic bad
luck, epic writing binges, failed lectures, surreal visions and
troubled marriage. It's a saga of genius refusing to be derailed.
But Parker unearths a plethora of new material, including
previously unknown family correspondence and even the title and
plot of Melville's long-lost novel, The Isle of the Cross." --
Douglas Brinkley, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Such perseverance and painstaking historical detail surely make
this biography the last word on Melville... For those who can't get
enough of Melville -- and they are a sizeable minority -- this
truly monumental achievement is the perfect book." -- Publishers
Weekly
"The massive biography of Melville by Hershel Parker is an
astonishing achievement. In two volumes of some two thousand large
and tightly printed pages, Parker has overcome many of the
obstacles that have stood, until now, in the way of a full-scale
life... Parker has given every student of Melville a great gift --
an incomparable sourcebook that will be plundered for years... This
[the second volume] is a more powerful book than its predecessor --
and sometimes it is downright gripping... An enormously
illuminating account of... the context in which Herman Melville
lived and worked... One is grateful for Parker's 'more than several
pages.'." -- Andrew Delbanco, New Republic
"The misery of [Melville's later] years is underscored by the most
authoritative account of them ever: Herman Melville, A Biography,
Volume 2, 1851-1891, by Hershel Parker. The book is 1,000 pages
long, a generous monument of research that lovingly details
Melville's reading and his family's activities, and seeks to uplift
his poetry." -- Philip Weiss, New York Observer
"The publication of the second volume of Hershel Parker's biography
of Herman Melville brings to a close an enterprise of archival and
critical scholarship that has lasted forty years--nearly as long as
Melville's writing career." -- Danny Karlin, London Review of
Books
"Through prodigious archival research, Parker creates a compelling
narrative out of the last forty years of Melville's life, as he
struggled with the spectre of failure... It is unlikely that a more
searching or truthful biography of Melville will appear in the
foreseeable future; the two volumes Parker has now published on one
of America's finest writers are not only the fullest account we
have of him but, quite probably, the final word." -- Richard Gray,
Literary Review
"With immense sympathy, Parker relates how Melville's intellectual
growth resulted in his writing novels that were increasingly
obscure to his ever-diminishing readership, and how, in his early
30s, as a husband and a father of four, his repeated failures
curdled his spirit and caused him to withdraw into himself...
Parker's telling makes a Greek tragedy of Melville's life after
Moby-Dick, which included the suicide of his son Malcolm and the
death of his young son Stanwix, his thankless work at the New York
Custom House, his victimization at the hands of the Harper
brothers, and his sinking into obscurity before his death... This
definitive work, together with the first volume, is essential for
every library." -- Library Journal (starred review)
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