I have been thinking about Phil Young since I packed THE PRIVATE MELVILLE. Hayford never forgave me for the blurb I wrote for it even though I did not say I agreed with anything in it. I had admired Phil Young, without meeting him, for many years because at an MLA I heard him talk about Hemingway. He talked like a man, not a professor. He had a voice, and I was already trying to create a voice. I never heard a better MLA talk. As things worked out, I saved his voice. After his death I was asked to read the copy-edited manuscript of his Melville book. The copy-editor, I saw after three or four pages, had relentlessly, ruthlessly, suppressed Phil's voice, levelling every sentence down to dullness. I did some telephoning, and Katherine Young ended up copy-editing the book, and letting Phil speak. Purely by coincidence, my old friend Paul Seydor was a student of Young's. The following letter is from a popular novelist, another student of Phil Young's, who testifies to the voice of the man.
As I divest myself I am finding all sorts of documents that cause me to pause and reflect.
Probably few people now heard Phil Young talk. Oh, maybe many more than I think. Lucky crew.
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