UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 14
December 12, 1996
Hershel Parker's book a 'portrait of a writer'

     Writing the first volume of what has been called the
definitive biography of Herman Melville involved a five-year
paper chase for Hershel Parker, H. Fletcher Brown Professor of
English.
     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. His involvement in the
project began when his friend and colleague, Melville scholar Jay
Leyda, became ill and was no longer able to continue with the
chronology.
     It was an overwhelming but exciting task, Parker said. New
material was constantly being discovered or made available, and
Parker 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.
     "I was reluctant to take this on at first, but I could not
have written the biography without continuing to compile the work
that Jay Leyda began," he said.
     One of the recent major discoveries 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.
     This volume, 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."
                                              -Sue Swyers Moncure