Call Me Ishmael - Softcover

Olson, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1614279071 ISBN 13: 9781614279075

Publisher: Martino Publishing, 2015

Synopsis

2015 Reprint of the 1947 edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. First published in 1947, this acknowledged classic of American literary criticism explores the influences - especially Shakespearean ones - on Melville's writing of Moby-Dick. One of the first Melvilleans to advance what has since become known as the "theory of the two Moby-Dicks," Olson argues that there were two versions of Moby-Dick, and that Melville's reading King Lear for the first time in between the first and second versions of the book had a profound impact on his conception of the saga: "the first book did not contain Ahab," writes Olson, and "it may not, except incidentally, have contained Moby-Dick." If literary critics and reviewers at the time responded with varying degrees of skepticism to the "theory of the two Moby-Dicks," it was the experimental style and organization of the book that generated the most controversy.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Olson (1910-1970), an avant garde poet, literary critic, and literary theorist, is the author of The Maximus Poems, The Distances, The Human Universe and Other Essays, and In Cold Hell, in Thicket.

Review

"Not only important, but apocalyptic."

(New York Herald Tribune)

"One of the most stimulating essays ever written on Moby Dick, and for that matter on any piece of literature, and the forces behind it."

(San Francisco Chronicle)

"Olson has been a tireless student of Melville and every Melville lover owes him a debt for his Scotland Yard pertinacity in getting on the trail of Melville's dispersed library."

(Lewis Mumford New York Times)

Edition details

• Publisher: Martino Publishing
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1614279071
• ISBN 13: 9781614279075
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128