Knowing him as Chowderhead for 3 Decades is one thing but his new review is downright scary.

In this review in Leviathan June 2019 John Bryant says it is "fair enough" to say I merely "surmise" the existence of two lost Melville books, there being no hard evidence such as "rejection slips"---Yet we have Charles Scribner's letter rejecting POEMS. And for the 1853 volume we have Herman Melville's letter to the Harpers on 24 November 1853 laying out what he has in hand: "In addition to the work which I took to New York last Spring, but which I was prevented from printing at that time; I have now in hand, and pretty well on towards completion, another book . . . ." Something is seriously askew in approving anyone's saying I merely surmised THE ISLE OF THE CROSS and POEMS.

Something is wrong. Someone should have tried to talk to him. I always refused to be on the editorial board because I knew he would not listen to reason. I will post something else about his "fiddling" with contributions (as when he drove Merton Sealts to slam down the phone after withdrawing his paper).

So in his review of the Northwestern-Newberry Edition THE WRITINGS OF HERMAN MELVILLE on p. 110 John Bryant instructs us on basic pronunciation:

          "Parthenope (pronounced PAR-thin-OH-pee) is now the newly sanctioned title for what we have in the past referred to as Melville’s Burgundy Club Sketches.” [That is what Bryant says.]

OK, not “Par then OPE” but “PAR-thin-OH-pee.” We get it. Except that Bryant is wrong.

                                 Be true,

Ye winds of ocean, and the midland sea,

Wafting your Charge to soft Parthenope!

That’s what Wordsworth wrote about Scott’s seeking health in Naples.

You can ask any dope
How to say Penelope,

But it takes a Johnny B

To Mispronounce Parthenope.

This would be merely amusing if in what passes as the final review of THE WRITINGS OF HERMAN MELVILLE John Bryant in LEVIATHAN had not gotten so very much wrong. We won't be around if Melvilleans centuries hence go about saying PAR-thin-OH pee PAR-thin-OH pee PAR-thin-OH pee PAR-thin-OH pee!