THIS IS MY CHALLENGING OPENING TO AN ESSAY FOR "LEVIATHAN" TO BE PUBLISHED WITH OTHER PIECES ON THE HISTORY OF THE MELVILLE EDITION. I WANT PEOPLE TO THINK ABOUT MELVILLE'S WORKING LIFE, AND THE USE OF EMPTY VOLUMES FOR LOST WORKS SHOULD AT LEAST GET PEOPLE'S ATTENTION.
A Mandate Fulfilled
(1965-2017): The Writings of Herman
Melville
Hershel Parker
On 27 October 2017 I could have lined up
paperbacks of the fifteen volumes of The
Writings of Herman Melville. After 13 February 2018, I could have lined up all
the hardbacks on my upside-down mantel above the door to my study, this way.
I have tried to fake two more spines for lost volumes that Melville
completed, The Isle of the Cross (to
go between Pierre and some of the
short stories, ideally, or the next
book, Israel Potter) and Poems (between The Confidence-Man and Battle-Pieces).
Here is my rough seventeen volume array.
Why start off this
way? Because few people who love Melville have come round to visualizing
anything close to the trajectory of his literary career as he lived it, the
career in which he tried to publish two lost volumes, The Isle of the Cross and Poems.
The final section of my Historical Note to Published
Poems was “The Trajectory of Melville’s Literary Career.” As I said in the Billy Budd volume (13, but the last of the
fifteen to be published), “A major purpose of this Historical Note is to reveal
more of the trajectory of Melville’s career by providing clearer glimpses of
some of the arcs that have been unknown.” This forum gives me the opportunity to
emphasize how much remains to be absorbed, even after we have found so much,
and to acknowledge that much more will be discovered.
[Then the article goes on a few pages]
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