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UD prof pens the definitive Melville biography
Television writers who plan to cover USA Network's four-hour mini series on "Moby Dick," airing March 15-16, can find valuable background material on Herman Melville from the University of Delaware's Hershel Parker, author of what has been called the "definitive" Melville biography.
The H. Fletcher Brown Professor of English and Writing published the biography's first volume in late 1996. It covers Melville's life up until the publication of "Moby Dick." A draft of Parker's second volume is now complete and will be published in about two years.
Before he even began to write the book, "Herman Melville:, A Biography, Volume 1, 1819-1851", published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, Parker undertook the task of continuing a detailed, daily log of Melville's life, begun by his friend and colleague, Melville scholar Jay Leyda.
It was an overwhelming but exciting task, Parker said. New material was constantly being discovered or made available, and he spent days, months and years at his computer, with a magnifier and perpetual calendar, transcribing letters, reviews, newspaper articles, old records and annotations and marginalia Melville had written in his books into the log. Much of the material was difficult to decipher.
One of the recent major discoveries that had to be incorporated was the Augusta Papers, belonging to Melville's sister, which were found by an Albany school teacher in an antiques and junk barn, run by an eccentric, elderly woman in upper New York State. The papers, now housed in the New York Public Library, are a treasure-trove and give intimate portraits of the Melville family to scholars, changing much that had previously been written about Melville.
Parker also tracked down other information from family members and other sources, fitting together the pieces to the puzzle of Melville's life. From these clues, he developed his true "stories" about Melville based on the minutiae and facts that he pursued, such as old shipping records to trace Melville's voyages as a seaman or the food that his mother ordered shortly after Melville was married that indicated she had a party for him and his bride.
Melville's life was as colorful as many of his writings. The biography begins when young Melville and his father, who was heavily in debt, were surreptitiously leaving New York City by boat at night to join his mother and the rest of his brothers and sisters to begin life anew in Albany.
Although the Melvilles on both sides were descended from highly respected families, their finances were precarious, and after his father's death, Melville was forced to leave school at the age of 12 and work for a bank, in his brother's store and at other jobs, including a stint of teaching.
Melville eventually decided to become a sailor and made a voyage to Liverpool, which Parker recreates from descriptions of the city in those days.
Melville later boarded Acushnet, a whaler. On a voyage to the South Pacific, he deserted ship and lived with natives in the Marquesas Islands. Parker recreates this period from Melville's own writings, records of his fellow shipmates and ship records and other accounts of whaling and voyages of the day.
In particular, Parker discusses an account of a whale's destruction of the ship Essex, written by a survivor, the first mate Owen Chase.
Melville had read this and called the narrative "wondrous." Chase wrote that the whale was "enveloped in the foam of the sea, that his continual and violent thrashing about in the water had created around him, and I could distinctly see him smite his jaws together, as if distracted with rage and fury."
After four years at sea, Melville returned home, but those years and experiences were pivotal to Melville's novels. During those long watches and voyages, he had become something of a storyteller, and his family encouraged him to write down his tales of his adventures. The result were Typee, followed by Omoo, both of which were successful, followed by Mardi, Redburn and lesser-known works.
Then, he wrote Moby-Dick, which he considered his best work and believed would be a great success. The book, however, was savagely attacked by the American critics of the day, particularly the conservative religious press, Parker said.
Volume I, however, which concludes on the day of the publication of "Moby-Dick," ends on a happy note. At this time in his life, Melville, by then married and a father, had formed a close friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Thanks to an article in a small Vermont newspaper, written by a reporter who happened to be in Lenox, Mass., at the time, Parker discovered that the two well-known authors had a lengthy dinner and evening at the Curtis hotel about the publication date of "Moby-Dick."
Hawthorne, who was moving away, wrote a glowing letter to Melville about the book a few days after the dinner. Parker points out that Melville must have given him a copy of the book, which he had dedicated to Hawthorne, that evening, because there was no other way Hawthorne could have received it and written to Melville so quickly.
As Parker wrote of that memorable occasion, "Take it all in all, this was the happiest day of Melville's life."
Although he had been a successful author with his early books, from that time on Melville was attacked and his works were harshly received in this country, particularly by the evangelical press, Parker said. "In fact," he said, " I first had to write a draft of the second part of the biography of his later years because they were so full of pain and grief, I was not sure I could take on the task later."
But, as Parker writes in the introduction to this volume, he found the years after l851 until Melville's death in 1891, "infused with the sort of valor (physical, psychological, intellectual and aesthetic) that makes for compelling narrative....More than once, I would have warned him away from a precipice, but I depict him as I see him."
The biography has received positive critical acclaim. The Library Journal calls the book a "highly detailed, beautifully written and moving portrait of a great writer."
Calling Parker "the acknowledged dean of Melville studies," The Washington Post reviewer wrote that the book's "scholarship is impeccable, its prose clear and swift, its scope awe- inspiring."
Parker is coeditor of the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of The Writings of Herman Melville and editor of Melville's Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, who also did the portrait of Melville for this biography. Parker is the author of Flawed Texts and Verbal Icons and Reading "Billy Budd."
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