Hershel Parker on
Herman Melville, and Walter J. Ong’s Thought
Thomas J. Farrell
Professor Emeritus
in Writing Studies
University of
Minnesota Duluth
This starts out:
Web: In order to get into a proper spirit to read Hershel
Parker’s massively researched biography of Herman Melville (1819-1891), I found
it necessary to try to see a parallel trajectory in my own life. No, I did not
embark as a sailor on a whaler when I was around 22 years old, and I did not
publish embellished tales of my adventures such as Typee (1846) and Omoo
(1847).
However, Parker ends volume one (1996) of his
two-volume biography with Melville presenting Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
in person with a copy of Moby-Dick (1851) so that he could see the look
on Hawthorne’s face when he saw that Melville had dedicated the book to him.
Taking a hint from this gesture on Melville’s part, I figured out a trajectory
in my own life involving an older scholar whose work I much admire. . . . . .
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