71:, as an only child to Merton Sealts (1876-1946) and Daisy Hathaway Sealts (1879-1974). His father worked as a salesman for the family business of wholesale grocers. Initially the family lived on 540 West Market Street, but when Sealts was nine years old they moved to a house under construction at 1440 West Market Street, in a new addition called Westwood. Sealts's schooling began in 1921 at Franklin elementary in Lima. In 1929 he enrolled at Lima Central High School, where his principal interest during all four years was in journalism. In 1933 he enrolled at the
171:, which contained the texts of Melville's lectures that Sealts reconstructed in 1957. He also decided what attributed pieces were to be included. Calling Sealts "the undisputed authority on Melville's short prose works, and a pioneer in the movement to appreciate their artistic worth," Lea Newman praised his "impeccably documented and flawlessly written 'Historical Note'" and described his research as "an exercise in literary sleuthing of consummate skill," his involvement "both informs and validates this edition as nothing else could."
183:
owned or borrowed." In his review for the
Melville Society, John Wenke ranked the work "among the most important and useful contributions to Melville scholarship," because it "provides an indispensable point of reference and departure for the practice of serious scholarship." Wenke also found the endeavor "inspiring and dignified," and that the book "testifies to abiding dedication to establishing a documentary basis for literary studies."
88:
and another, out of which his dissertation grew, on
Melville's major philosophical ideas." Sealts described Williams's seminar in American literature as "the most valuable course I took at Yale and the most influential as well." Williams supervised more than a dozen dissertations on Melville, among
182:
Melville survey for 1988, Brian
Higgins described the book: "Sealts's original introductory essay is expanded into nine chapters, relating Melville's reading more closely to the composition of individual works and drawing on Melville's sources beyond the volumes he and his family are known to have
138:
the year's best study: "This is a highly significant contribution, a long-needed work which is a model of responsible scholarship, both meticulous and far-ranging, a reproach and an inspiration to the dozens who regularly publish on
Melville with none of the respect for truth which pervades this
113:
for May 1941. In 1965 he joined the faculty at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he became the Henry A. Pochmann Professor of English, teaching both graduates and undergraduates. Dissertations on Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and James were among the twent-nine he directed.
195:(American Section). His last publication dates from March 1998, a supplementary note on Melville's reading, the last result of his pursuit of half a century to find books Melville owned or borrowed, and he reports an important discovery: the emergence of a major source for
147:
chapter surveying 1980 as "one of the handful of classic scholarly essays on
Melville, a meticulous, immensely judicious evaluation of Melville's knowledge of and ambivalent response to Ralph Waldo Emerson." In 1982, Robert Milder—who was then writing the
79:
became one of his favorites. In his senior year, he took courses on
Shakespeare with Howard Lowry, and on Milton with Lowell W. Coolidge. Lowry advised him to study English at Yale, where he enrolled in 1937. In his third year, he took a seminar with
114:
According to Gail
Coffler, one of his Ph.D. students, his own prose is free of "jargon or trendy language so that his books and essays have never become outdated nor will they be superseded." And Melville scholars "will always consult
215:". He handed his research project on Melville's books over to Steven Olsen-Smith of Boise State University, whom he identified as having "the interest and commitment necessary for carrying on the project."
164:(1988), describing the essay as "one of the series of classic pieces Sealts has been publishing pell mell since his retirement, the most impressive string of articles any Melvillean has yet produced."
211:(1840), which Melville purchased in June 1847. One month before he died, the bedridden Sealts still participated in "a nationally broadcast radio series in a program on Melville's novella,
586:
89:
them Sealts's on "Herman
Melville's Reading in Ancient Philosophy." His classmates included many of the scholars who would lay down many of the fundaments for Melville studies.
507:
Bush et al., Memorial
Committee of the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Sargent Bush, Walter Rideout, and Jeffrey Steele. "On the Death of Professor Merton M. Sealts, Jr."
84:, who was among the first scholars to teach American literature, a field which had not been formed. Sealts wrote one paper on "the intellectual affiliations of Emerson's
75:
as a member of the Class of 1937, the first member of either side of his family to attend college. At Wooster he took courses in philosophy with Vergilius Ferm, where
156:, "a major contribution to our understanding of the influences upon Melville's thought and writing." Sealts contributed an essay on Billy Budd to John Bryant (ed.),
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101:. After his training, he was stationed in Brazil in 1943, and in New Delhi, India the following year.
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Sealts's first publication was an essay on "Herman Melville's 'I and My Chimney'", which appeared in
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survey chapters—called "Melville and the Platonic Tradition", the new essay written especially for
20:
191:
Sealts continued publishing after retirement, and in 1992 received the Jay B. Hubell award of the
476:
Melville Society Extracts 73, May 1988, 11-13. Quotations from page 13. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
98:
72:
506:
283:
44:
32:
485:
Memorial Committee of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2001. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
52:
24:
250:
The Early Lives of Melville: Nineteenth-Century Biographical Sketches and Their Authors.
131:
550:
19:(December 8, 1915 – June 4, 2000) was a scholar of American literature, focusing on
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Melville's Literary Muse: Literary Creation and the Forms of Philosophical Fiction
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study." In 1980, Sealts published "Melville and Emerson's Rainbow" (included in
538:
Nathalia Wright, "Melville and STW at Yale: Studies under Stanley T. Williams."
418:
Nathalia Wright, "Melville and STW at Yale: Studies under Stanley T. Williams."
68:
197:
130:
reviewing the year's publications on Melville. In the chapter for 1974,
304:, Greenwood Press, New York/Westport, Connecticut/London, 1986, 407-30
47:(1948–1965), and became Henry A. Pochmann Professor of English at the
387:
John B. Williams, White Fire: The Influence of Emerson on Melville.
300:"Innocence and Infamy: Billy Budd, Sailor", in John Bryant (ed.),
246:, 1969; enlarged 2nd ed., Southern Illinois University Press, 1979
203:
76:
27:. His most important works are the genetic edition of Melville's
308:"'An utter idler and a savage': Melville in the Spring of 1852."
280:
Closing the Books : A Memoir of an Academic Career.
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70, September 1987, 14-15. Retrieved on 22 August 2014.
160:(Greenwood Press, 1986) which book Parker reviewed in
126:
From 1967 to 1971 Sealts wrote the annual chapters in
174:
In 1988 appeared the revised and enlarged edition of
543:, 70 (September 1987), 1-4. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
423:, 70 (September 1987), 3. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
256:Pursuing Melville, 1940-1980: Chapters and Essays.
521:Closing the Books: A Memoir of an Academic Career
274:Beyond the Classroom: Essays on American Authors.
262:Melville's Reading: Revised and Enlarged Edition.
167:In 1987 Sealts was the main editor of Melville's
282:(New York, N.Y.: Vantage Press, 1st, 1999).
237:Billy Budd, Sailor : (an inside Narrative).
118:and cite the 'Sealts number'. That will stand."
258:Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982.
252:Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974.
239:(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).
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232:. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957.
244:Emerson's "Nature": Origin, Growth, Meaning
43:(1966, revised edition 1988). He taught at
512:Coffler, Gail H. "Merton M. Sealts, Jr."
264:University of South Carolina Press, 1988.
97:In early 1942, Sealts was drafted in the
532:Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies
514:Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies
509:5 February 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2014
587:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
401:
169:The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces
67:Sealts was born on 8 December 1915, in
526:Sealts, Merton M. Jr. "Announcement:
270:. University of Missouri Press, 1992.
201:(1851) and for the first chapters of
7:
451:Lea Bertani Vozar Newman, "The N-N
276:University of Missouri Press, 1996.
207:(1849), Frederick Debell Bennett's
14:
143:), which Parker described in his
122:Judgments of Sealts's scholarship
341:"A Second Supplementary Note to
354:"A Third Supplementary Note to
302:A Companion to Melville Studies
158:A Companion to Melville Studies
49:University of Wisconsin–Madison
519:Sealts, Merton M. Jr. (1999).
317:
1:
209:Narrative of a Whaling Voyage
162:Nineteenth-Century Literature
128:American Literary Scholarship
37:Pursuing Melville, 1940–1980
582:Lawrence University faculty
383:106, September 1996, 20-22.
193:Modern Language Association
136:The Early Lives of Melville
121:
618:
523:. New York: Vantage Press.
242:(with Alfred R. Ferguson)
572:College of Wooster alumni
541:Melville Society Extracts
458:Melville Society Extracts
421:Melville Society Extracts
392:91, November 1992, 17-19.
390:Melville Society Extracts
381:Melville Society Extracts
361:Melville Society Extracts
348:Melville Society Extracts
335:Melville Society Extracts
328:"A Supplementary Note to
311:Melville Society Extracts
51:(1965-1982). He won both
337:80, February 1990, 5-10.
432:Coffler (2000), 120-121
363:112, March 1998, 12-14.
318:Supplementary Notes to
235:with Harrison Hayford,
597:Writers from Wisconsin
577:Yale University alumni
567:People from Lima, Ohio
470:John Wenke, "Sealts's
268:Emerson on the Scholar
57:Guggenheim fellowships
31:(1962, co-edited with
350:100, March 1995, 2-3.
230:Melville as Lecturer
17:Merton M. Sealts Jr.
494:Sealts (2000), 2000
441:Coffler (2000), 121
219:Sealts bibliography
111:American Literature
82:Stanley T. Williams
21:Ralph Waldo Emerson
528:Melville's Reading
516:2:2, October 2000.
356:Melville's Reading
343:Melville's Reading
330:Melville's Reading
320:Melville's Reading
213:Billy Budd, Sailor
176:Melville's Reading
116:Melville's Reading
99:United States Army
73:College of Wooster
41:Melville's Reading
29:Billy Budd, Sailor
592:Writers from Ohio
154:Pursuing Melville
141:Pursuing Melville
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534:2:1, March 2000.
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33:Harrison Hayford
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562:2000 deaths
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63:Early years
39:(1982) and
551:Categories
288:0533127246
93:Army years
69:Lima, Ohio
198:Moby-Dick
178:. In his
358:(1988)."
332:(1988)."
313:79, 1-3.
501:Sources
472:Reading
455:, etc."
368:Reviews
345:(1988).
105:Scholar
322:(1988)
295:Essays
286:
86:Nature
397:Notes
224:Books
204:Mardi
77:Plato
284:ISBN
55:and
23:and
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180:ALS
150:ALS
145:ALS
35:),
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59:.
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