draft headnote for Section one of MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE

The book is about ready to turn in. I am doing highly intellectual jobs like going through making sure there are no spaces between the final period of a paragraph and the hard return.

draft of headnote for section one.
§ I.--Biographer and Biography

In the June 23, 2002, New York Times Richard H. Brodhead revealed that he knew my deepest secrets, starting with this history: “Many years ago Hershel Parker set out to write the biography to end all biographies of Herman Melville.” Emerson said it best: “The grossest ignorance does not disgust like this impudent knowingness.” The grain of truth in what Brodhead so confidently announced was that I had started to work on Melville many years earlier. Because almost all academic critics, not just the quintessential New Critic like Brodhead, comprehend nothing about what a scholar does, I offer in this first section of Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative six autobiographical chapters on what can go into the making of a biographer and a documentary biography.

When I started to work on Melville I assumed most work had been done. Why, I wondered to Harrison Hayford, did we need to collate the American Moby-Dick against the English The Whale for the Norton Critical Edition--Mansfield and Vincent had done that in the 1940s, hadn’t they? Mansfield and Vincent had made an attempt but they had not been thorough. They had missed much of the evidence, botched the story, and had not read the book for words the copyist or the American compositor had misread. The lesson in the mid-1960s was stark: you have to do everything yourself if you want to know it has been done to your standards. Once you learn to look for good texts, you don’t stop. When I edited the American Renaissance part of the Norton Anthology of American Literature I put in texts of Poe from the Broadway Journal that actually made sense, as the standard truncated texts did not always do. You also think of things that ought to be known and are not available. The single best thing I did as a scholar was to put Whitman’s “Live Oak, with Moss” in that anthology, where, I assure myself, it saves lives of young people every year because it depicts a man surviving a happy but ultimately failed love affair with another man. In 1962 I began hunting reviews of Melville’s books to supplement the work others had done, continued the hunt systematically for the “Historical Notes” of the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of The Writings of Herman Melville, published results in the Higgins-Parker Cambridge Contemporary Reviews, and continued the hunt for my biography and The New Melville Log. There were years I felt like the Little Red Hen. When you spend a career thinking things through for yourself and doing work for yourself, you are grateful when you encounter brilliant fellow-researchers with highly developed work ethics, as I have been lucky enough to do, although a curious fact is that in recent years few of them have held jobs as professors.

Some biographers write about times when they ask themselves whom they should take as their next subject. Some of them even reveal that they have accepted someone else’s take-out asignment for the subject of a biography of. My story is different. I have worked many months on American writers other than Melville—Emerson, Hawthorne, G. W. Harris, Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, Clemens, James, Stephen Crane, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hemingway, Mailer—and all the work I have done on these writers has been, at bottom, textual and biographical. But my first talk at a scholarly meeting, in 1960, was on Melville, my dissertation was on Melville, and except for The Norton Anthology of American Literature and Flawed Texts and Verbal Icons all my books and collections and the majority of my articles have been on Melville. If I was going to write a biography, it would be on Melville. As I explain in this section, I set out in the early 1980s merely to help Jay Leyda expand The Melville Log, helping again as I had helped with the 1969 Supplement. We would share new information, and I would briskly write a biography. Then I would get back to my interrupted career as textual theorist, for I had plans beyond the 1984 Flawed Texts and Verbal Icons. I must, still, have believed in what I discuss in this section as the Silver Platter theory of biography. I had not yet learned that if you want to know what the manuscripts say you have to transcribe them for yourself. In that dirtiest of all dirty jobs, you just may discover sidelights on episodes in a writer’s life or even astonishing episodes no one had ever known. This section traces the on-the-job training of one biographer to read and interpret evidence, a training (to end the headnote with Thoreau), such as the athletes underwent.

Why I am neglecting this blog

Hershel Parker—working Contents, 29 August 1011
MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE
00 Contents
00 Preface

§ I.--Biographer and Biography (with short headnote)
01 The Textual Editor as Biographer in Training: The Norton Moby-Dick and the NN The Writings of Herman Melville
02 Entangled by Pierre: Doing Biography Away from the Archives
03 Creating The New Melville Log and Starting the Biography
04 Melville and the Footsteps Theory of Biography
05 Facts Which Do Not Speak for Themselves
06 Desiderata and Discoveries--In Traditional Archives and Databases

§ II.—Critics vs. Biographical Scholarship (with short headnote)
07 Editors and Agenda-Driven Reviewers: Melville in the New York Newspapers and Magazines vs. Hopeful Loomings from Litblogs and “Ragtag Bloggers”
08 Little Jack Horners and Archivophobics
09 Biographical Scholars and Recidivist Critics
10 Presentism in Melville Biography
11 The Late 20th-Century Mini-Melville: New York City Intellectuals
without Information
12 The Early 21st-Century Mini-Melville: New York Intellectuals without Information

§ III.—Demonstrations of Biographical Scholarship and Challenges (with short headnote)
13 Melville as the “Modern Boccaccio”: The Fascinations of Fayaway
14 Melville’s Courtship of Elizabeth Shaw
15 Melville's Short Run of Good Luck (1845-1849): Fool’s Paradise without International Copyright
16 Melville as the Harper “Sacrifice” for the “Public Good”
17 Melville and Hawthorne at the Hotel in Lenox
18 Why Melville Took Hawthorne to the Holy Land: Biography Enhanced by Databases and an Amateur Blogger
19 Melville as a Titan of Literature among High-Minded English Admirers: The Kory-Kory Component
20 Damned by Dollars: Moby-Dick and the Price of Genius

Evolving Table of Contents for MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE

MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE

00 Preface

§ I.--Biographer and Biography
01 The Textual Editor as Biographer in Training: The Norton Moby- Dick and the Northwestern-Newberry The Writings of Herman Melville
02 Entangled by Pierre: Doing Biography Away from the Archives
03 Creating The New Melville Log
04 Melville and the Footsteps Theory of Biography
05 Facts Which Do Not Speak for Themselves
06 Desiderata and Discoveries in Traditional Archives and Databases

§ II.—Critics vs. Archival Scholarship
07 Little Jack Horners and Archivophobics
08 Presentism in Melville Biography
09 Scholars and Recidivist Critics
10 Partisan Editors and Agenda-Driven Reviewers: Melville in the MSM vs. Hopeful Loomings of Litblogs and “Ragtag Bloggers”
11 The Malign Legacy of the New Criticism
12 The Late 20th-Century Mini-Melville: New York Intellectuals without Information
13 The Early 21st-Century Mini-Melville: New York Intellectuals without Information

§ III.—Demonstrations of Biographical Scholarship and Interpretation
14 Melville as the “Modern Boccaccio”: The Fascinations of Fayaway
15 Melville’s Courtship of Elizabeth Shaw
16 Melville's Short Run of Good Luck (1845-1849): Fool’s Paradise without International Copyright
17 Melville as the Harper “Sacrifice” for the “Public Good”
18 Melville and Hawthorne at the Hotel in Lenox
19 Why Melville Took Hawthorne to the Holy Land: Biography Enhanced by Databases and an Amateur Blogger
20 Melville as a Titan of Literature among High-Minded English Admirers: The Kory-Kory Component
21 Damned by Dollars: Moby-Dick and the Price of Genius

The evolving table of contents for MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE

29 June 2011

MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE

00 Foreword
01 The Footsteps Theory of Biography
02 The Biographical Basis of Textual Editing
03 Entangled by Pierre: The Inexorable Summons to the Archives
04 Creating The New Melville Log
05 Desiderata and Puzzlements
06 Melville’s Courtship of Elizabeth Shaw
07 The “Modern Boccaccio,” Our First Literary Sex Symbol:
The Fascinations of Fayaway
08 Facts Which Do Not Speak for Themselves
09 Presentism in Biography
10 Little Jack Horners and Archivophobics
11 Biographical Scholars and Recidivist Critics
12 The Malign Legacy of the New Criticism
13 Melville's Short Run of Good Luck
14 Melville and Hawthorne at the Hotel in Lenox
15 A Sacrifice for the Public Good
16 Late 20th-Century Intellectuals without Information
17 Early 21st-Century Intellectuals without Information
18 Why Melville Took Hawthorne to the Holy Land
19 Melville as a Titan of Literature: High-Minded English Admirers
and the Kory-Kory Component
20 Damned by Dollars: Moby-Dick and the Price of Genius

What's Going On: The Emergence of MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE

I'm still in a state of shock. The Inside Reader announced that her Summer would be devoted to volunteerism except for a three-week opening in late June and early July. That news focused my energies amazingly. Rather than dawdling for months, I am working. The first 11 chapters are now ready for the reader and I think 5 of the remaining chapters are almost ready. I have to fall to or the reader will be nipping at my heels.

What this means is that MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE will go to the press a lot sooner than I had thought.
What's next? One external suggestion is ALL I KNOW AND THEN SOME.

21 June 2011

MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE

00 Foreword
01 The Footsteps Theory of Biography
02 The Biographical Basis of Textual Editing
03 Entangled by Pierre: The Inexorable Summons to the Archives
04 Creating The New Melville Log
05 Desiderata and Puzzlements
06 Melville’s Courtship of Elizabeth Shaw
07 The “Modern Boccaccio”: Melville as Heterosexual Sex Symbol
08 Facts Which Do Not Speak for Themselves
09 Presentism in Biography
10 Little Jack Horners and Archivophobics
11 Scholars and Recidivist Critics
12 The Dehumanizing Effects of the New Criticism
13 Melville's Short Run of Good Luck
14 Melville and Hawthorne's Last Meeting in the Berkshires
15 A Sacrifice for the Public Good
16 Late 20th-Century Intellectuals without Information
17 21st-Century Intellectuals without Information
18 Why Melville Took Hawthorne to the Holy Land
19 The Revival: Melville as Sex Symbol for Homosexuals
20 Damned by Dollars

MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE: The Latest Table of Contents

18 June 2011

MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE

00 Foreword
01 The Footsteps Theory of Biography
02 The Biographical Basis of Textual Editing
03 Entangled by Pierre: The Inexorable Summons to the Archives
04 Creating The New Melville Log
05 Desiderata and Puzzlements
06 Melville’s Courtship of Elizabeth Shaw
07 The “Modern Boccaccio”: Melville as Heterosexual Sex Symbol
08 Facts Which Do Not Speak for Themselves
09 Scholars and Recidivist Critics
10 Little Jack Horners and Archivophobics
11 The Repudiation of Facts
12 Presentism in Biography
13 Melville's Short Run of Good Luck
14 Melville and Hawthorne's Last Meeting in the Berkshires
15 A Sacrifice for the Public Good
16 Intellectuals without Information through 1997
17 Intellectuals without Information After 2000
18 Why Melville Took Hawthorne to the Holy Land
19 The Revival: Melville as Sex Symbol for Homosexuals
20 Damned by Dollars

This is happening. The Chief Reader is devouring and returning 2 chapters a day, starting yesterday.