Melville : a biography / Laurie Robertson-Lorant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Robertson-Lorant, Laurie, 1940-

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891.

Melville, Herman.

Novelists, American--19th century--Biography.

Novelists, American.

Genre:

Biographies.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xxv, 710 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.

Summary:

Drawing on more than five hundred newly discovered letters, this book immerses the reader in the often turbulent world of Herman Melville, from his childhood to his seafaring days, to his often frustrating career as a writer. With energetic prose and an unerring eye for psychological nuance, Laurie Robertson-Lorant explores the forces that shaped the man: the women and children in his life, his enigmatic relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, the psychosexual tensions that informed his art, his struggles against debt, his disappointment about failing to win a popular audience for his more serious work, and the alcoholism and violence that plagued his family. Melville is a brilliant account of one of America's preeminent literary geniuses.

Notes:

Originally published: New York : Clarkson/Potter Publishers, c1996.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [675]-683) and index.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has book review (2 sheets) laid in at front.

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has print out for author appearance laid in at front.

ISBN:

1558491457

9781558491458

OCLC:

38218194