A comprehensive exploration of Melville's formative years, providing a new biographical foundation for today's generations of Melville readers

Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, Volumes 1 and 2, follows Herman Melville's life from early childhood to his astonishing emergence as a bestselling novelist with the publication of Typee in 1846. These volumes comprise the first half of a comprehensive biography on Melville, grounded in archival research, new scholarship, and incisive critical readings. Author John Bryant, a distinguished Melville scholar, editor, critic, and educator, traces the events and experiences that shaped the many-stranded consciousness of one of literature's greatest writers. This in-depth and innovative biography covers Melville's family history and literary friendships, his father-longing, god-hunger, and search for the hidden nature of Being, the genesis of his liberal politics, his empathy for African Americans, Native Americans, Polynesians, South Americans, and immigrants.

Original perspectives on Melville's earliest identities--orphaned son, sibling, farmer, teacher, debater, lover, actor, sailor--provide the context for Melville's evolution as a writer. The biography presents new information regarding Melville's reading, his early orations and acting experience, his life at sea and on the road, and the unsettling death of his older, rival brother from mercury poisoning. It provides insights on experiences such as Melville's trauma at the loss of his father, his learning to write amidst a coterie siblings, his struggles to find work during economic depression, his journey West, his life in whaling and in the navy, and his vagabondage in the South Pacific during the moment of American and European imperial incursions. A significant addition to Melville scholarship, this important biographical work:

* Explores the nature and development of Melville's creative consciousness, through the lens of his revisions in manuscript and print

* Assesses Melville's sexual growth and exploration of the spectrum of his masculinities

* Highlights Melville's relevance in contemporary democratic society

* Discusses Melville's blending of dark humor and tragedy in his unique version of the picturesque

* Examines the 'replaying' of Melville's life traumas throughout his entire works, from Typee, Omoo, Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick, Pierre, Israel Potter, and The Confidence-Man to his shorter works, including "Bartleby," his epic Clarel, his poetry, and his last novella Billy Budd

* Covers such cultural and historical events as the American revolution of his grandparents, the whaling industry, New York slavery, street life and theater in Manhattan, the transatlantic slave trade, the Jacksonian economy, Indian removal, Pacific colonialism, and westward expansion

Written in an engaging style for scholars and general readers alike, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, Volumes 1 and 2 is an indispensable new source of information and insights for those interested in Melville, 19th-century and modern literature and culture, and readers of general American history and literary culture.

JOHN BRYANT is a leading Melville scholar and Professor Emeritus of English at Hofstra University. He is the author of A Companion to Melville Studies, Melville and Repose, The Fluid Text, Melville Unfolding, and over 70 articles on Melville and related nineteenth-century writers. He is the founder of Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies, and of the Melville Electronic Library. He received the Distinguished Editor Award from Council of Editors of Learned Journals in 2015.

Klappentext

A COMPREHENSIVE EXPLORATION OF MELVILLE'S FORMATIVE YEARS, PROVIDING A NEW BIOGRAPHICAL FOUNDATION FOR TODAY'S GENERATION OF MELVILLE READERS.

Herman Melville: A Half Known Life (Volumes 1 and 2) follows the unfoldings of an unpromising child, wayward adolescent, and uncommon sailor who became one of the world's greatest writers. These volumes comprise a comprehensive biography of the first half of Melville's life grounded in archival research, new scholarship, and incisive critical readings. Culminating with Melville's astonishing arrival on the literary scene with the publication of Typee in 1846, they cover Melville's family history and literary friendships; his father-longing, god-hunger, and search for the roots of Being; the genesis of his liberal politics, and his life-long evolving empathy for African Americans, Native Americans, Polynesians, South Americans, immigrants, and the dispossessed.

The biography presents new information regarding Melville's early reading, his schooling, debating, and acting experience, his learning to write alongside a coterie of gifted siblings, his life at sea and on the road, and the unsettling death of his older, rival brother from mercury poisoning. A major addition to Melville scholarship, this important biographical study:

• Explores the intimate nature of Melville's creative consciousness, through the lens of his revisions in manuscript and print
• Assesses the range of his masculinities and his love for women and men
• Discusses Melville's blending of dark humor and tragedy in his unique version of the picturesque
• Examines the "replaying" of Melville's life traumas throughout his entire works, from Typee, Omoo, Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick, Pierre, Israel Potter, The Confidence-Man, and his epic Clarel to his shorter works, including "Bartleby," his poetry, and his last novella Billy Budd
• Places Melville's life and works in the context of cultural and historical events from the American revolution of his grandparents to the traumas of the Jacksonian era, including cholera pandemic, whaling, slavery, and economic depression, New York street life and theater, Indian removal, and westward expansion; poverty in Liverpool, the Brazilian transatlantic slave trade, revolution in Peru, and Pacific imperialism
• Underscores Melville's relevance for contemporary democratic society

Written in an engaging style for scholars and general readers alike, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, Volumes 1 and 2 integrates Melville's life and work in the context of early to modern American and literary culture. It is indispensable for readers seeking new insights into Melville biography and new ways of reading Melville.

Inhalt

Volume 1 Eternal Ifs: Infant, Boy, and Man (1819-1840) 0

Introduction 5347

1 Manhattan and Albany (1819-1832) 0

Chap 1 Last Leaves, New Leaf 5085

Chap 2 Commerce and Providence 3248

Chap 3 Home and Street 6921

Chap 4 Awakenings 6487

Chap 5 The Secret of Our Paternity 7042

Chap 6 Marriage of New England and New York 2647

Chap 7 Recuperations 2588

Chap 8 School Boy and Reader 4694

Chap 9 The Birth of Ishmael 3166

2 Growing up Gansevoort (1832-1836) 0

Chap 10 Patriarch and Hero 4153

Chap 11 Gansevoort and the Indians 3373

Chap 12 Broken Temple 4576

Chap 13 Jackson and the Negro 2706

Chap 14 Albany and Africa 4625

Chap 15 Black Gansevoort 3092

Chap 16 Mourning and Arousal 4922

Chap 17 Summer of Plague 5104

Chap 18 Spoils and Debt 1811

Chap 19 Working Boy: Steam & Temptation 4525

Chap 20 Moving Up 3433

3 Sibling Coterie (1836) 0

Chap 21 Brother Gansevoort 6562

Chap 22 Happiness and Power 4568

Chap 23 Sister Helen 4116

*Chap 24 Emancipated School Girl 7423

Chap 25 Sister Augusta 6307

Chap 26 Dark-eyed Darling 5368

Chap 27 Composing Yourself 4830

4 Inland Identities:

Farmer, Teacher, Debater, Lover, Writer (1836-1839) 0