Category Archives: Nineteenth-century literature
Charles Olson: Call Me Ishmael
January 25, 2012 In the early 1930s, while writing his Master’s thesis on Melville, Charles Olson began tracking down the books once owned by Melville, some with significant marginalia. Melville’s widow had sold almost 500 of these books to a … Continue reading
Two-Way Street
January 18, 2012 Alex Steele never took a class from me. I don’t think I’d ever seen her around the department. But my colleague, Richard Deming, who was going to direct her senior essay, is away on a Fellowship … Continue reading
Agha Shahid Ali’s “Call me Ishmael Tonight”
January 4, 2012 This was his last book of poems, published posthumously. Agha Shahid Agha had died of brain cancer on December 8, 2001. How important was Moby-Dick to the Kashmiri poet? Probably less than what Melvilleans would like to … Continue reading
Frank Stella re-mediates Moby-Dick
December 28, 2011 The numbers speak for themselves. Begun in 1985, the Moby-Dick series is still ongoing, with one or more artworks corresponding to each of the 135 chapter titles, over 300 of them at this point. They are mostly … Continue reading
Collaboration with Chance
December 21 On our Facebook page, Edgar Garcia posted a link to Jackson Mac Low’s Words nd Ends from Ez. Ezra Pound, of course. The two poets used to be friends, but they were no longer close when Mac Low … Continue reading
Melville in the Dominican Republic
December 14, 2011 As far I know, he never set foot there. But then a physical journey is not always necessary. Junot Diaz is not shy about naming names — The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is almost … Continue reading
Updating the Nineteenth Century
November 30, 2011 Michael Gilmore, my old colleague at Brandeis, used to teach a lecture course on nineteenth-century American literature, with 100 students every year. I used to teach one with 50 students. That seemed a very long time ago. … Continue reading