My diaries are indeed devoid of respect for Kazin, who pontificated about poetry being only a sideline of Melville's and something he was not very good at. I may transcribe the notes I made then, in 1997.
7 October 2011
In the next week's TLS Robert Alter takes issue with what Leader says about his role in a passage in Kazin's journals.
From diary: Kazin = like . . . become senile--knows a little rumor & thinks it is truth--contemptuous of M's "sideline" of poetry--So I had to straighten him out. Paul was fine . . . . Paul brought up Weaver's record of his mother's bad breath and I confessed that in 1967 I had suppressed that bit.
ReplyDeleteFOR WHAT I QUOTED FROM KAZIN IN "MELVILLE: THE MAKING OF THE POET" I GOT A VIDEOTYPE AND TRANSCRIBED EXACTLY.
http://blithespirit.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/todays-chuckle/#comment-9024
ReplyDeleteHere is Jim Bowman's sweet comment on this piece.