378:, also in 1929, described the book as both "the best book on Melville that we have" and the best of Mumford's books. Gorman credits Mumford with depicting Melville's life as "a superb and (at the time) unrecognized victory" by placing him in his historical context and examining the spiritual aspects of his life, but argues that Mumford is insufficiently attentive to the tragic elements of Melville's life. Gorman accuses Mumford of overstating the value of certain of Melville's works, but praises Mumford's clear affection for his subject and argues that "this loving seal on the part of a biographer can hardly be called a fault".
394:, but praised his interpretation of Melville himself and his account of how Melville was influenced by the events of the 19th century. Orwell (writing under his real name E. A. Blair) wrote that Mumford had "altogether too keen an eye for the inner meaning", but found that this tendency "does not seriously spoil the book, because Mr Mumford is concerned with Melville's mind as a whole rather than his mere artistry." Orwell concluded that the book would be of interest to admirers of Melville, who would be encouraged by it to read beyond his best-known and most successful works.
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marks a transitional moment in
Mumford's career: where previously "his books concerned almost exclusively with American art and culture," he later came to address a much broader range of topics. Reviewing biographies of Melville in 2018, Ian Maloney argued that Mumford's book "remains useful as a
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as "the most complete, eloquent and inescapable writing that has so far been done upon
Melville", but argued that other sections of the book are much less successful. Moore finds Mumford's interpretation of Melville's later life as a period of spiritual rehabilitation "wholly unproved and far from
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Melville demonstrated his awareness of the existence of evil, and his refusal to allow it to overwhelm him, while simultaneously seeking to give a degree of moral purpose or meaning to life. Mumford identifies the white whale as the novel's central figure, and argues it represents the universe and
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and read
Melville's own journals, provided to him by the author's granddaughter. His research for the book was subject to financial constraints: he and his wife were expecting a child, and so he aimed for the book to be published by early 1929. Mumford's three previous books had been published by
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described
Mumford as "the most fluent and unequivocal" of Melville's biographers and praised his "poetic vision and ... intimate knowledge of the cultural series in America". Murray praised Mumford's account of Melville's relation to his age and his judgement of his literary works, including his
275:
and his death) in some depth, while devoting less attention to the author's years at sea. Mumford argues that in these later years
Melville was able to rehabilitate himself psychically. Whereas previous studies had neglected Melville's later writing, Mumford's consideration of this body of work
410:
as
Mumford's "most self-revealing book and the clearest expression of his matured moral outlook." Miller argues that Mumford saw the book as "an opportunity to deal with moral and explosively personal issues he had treated only cursorily and rather callowly in his previous writings." Miller
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Miller also notes that
Mumford often goes too far in drawing connections between Melville's work and his life, and that later researchers would conclude that Melville's autobiographical fiction was not a reliable source of information about his experiences, as Mumford had taken it to be.
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as an integration of scientific study and imaginative thought, which thereby reconciled two opposing tendencies in modern life. He views the novel as an allegory for humanity's efforts to find purpose, and a pointer to a new age characterised by organic balance. Mumford argues that in
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Additionally, Miller argues that
Mumford failed to consult, or to adequately scrutinize, certain sources that were available to him due to his haste to publish the book. In his 2007 discussion of Mumford and Murray's friendship, Frank G. Novak, Jr. argues that
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as a kindred spirit with whom he shared certain concerns and problems, as well as certain life experiences. Mumford was intrigued by
Melville's personality, his personal development and his vision of life, and saw Melville as an unorthodox
258:, as clues to events in his life, they were in fact largely fictional and did not significantly draw on the author's own experiences. Most of the errors resulting from this misapprehension were removed from the 1962 revised edition.
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includes an account of
Melville's life and an interpretive discussion of his writing. Mumford takes Melville's fiction as indicative of aspects of his psyche; in its effort to understand Melville's mind through his work,
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Critics reviewing the biography tended to agree that it was the most comprehensive work on Melville then available, though some reviewers argued that Mumford overstated Melville's significance and the greatness of
436:, Mumford's book helped to solidify Melville's status as a globally significant author. As well as reaffirming Melville's importance, Mumford contributed to an awareness of continuities between his work and the
96:, first published in 1929. Mumford, who felt a close affinity with Melville, gives both an account of the author's life and an interpretation of his works in the book, devoting particular attention to
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Conceiving of the biography in 1927, Mumford envisioned it as the most ambitious project of his career to that point. The book was written over the space of a year, in what he described to his friend
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in 1929, acknowledged Mumford's expertise on his subject, while observing that parts of the book appear to be as much about Mumford himself as about Melville. Moore described the chapters covering
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argues that Mumford closely identified with Melville, to the point that "at times it is impossible to tell whether Mumford is writing about Herman Melville or about himself", and described
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269:(1921), the first full biography of Melville. Mumford, however, diverges from Weaver by discussing Melville's later life (the forty-year period between the publication of
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of the 1920s, helping to affirm the author's reputation and to indicate connections between his work and later literature. The book was later republished under the title
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283:, Mumford dismisses critics who described the novel as a failure or incoherent, arguing instead that the work "stands by itself as complete as the
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as the book's high point, and describes it as effecting "a fusion of novelist and biographer which creates a tone unlike any modern biography."
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The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 1: An Age Like This 1920–1940
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was unenthusiastic about the Melville biography, so Mumford went instead to
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Melville's Mirrors: Literary Criticism and America's Most Elusive Author
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Aronoff, Eric (2018). "The Melville Revival". In Hayes, Kevin J. (ed.).
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for the society in which it was produced anticipates themes in the
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work of criticism, but is less reliable as a biography, per se."
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Maloney, Ian (2018). "Biographies". In Hayes, Kevin J. (ed.).
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989:. Cambridge University Press. pp. 337–346.
931:. Cambridge University Press. pp. 296–306.
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305:the conjunction of nature and destiny, whereas
216:Herman Melville: A Study of His Life and Vision
109:Herman Melville: A Study of His Life and Vision
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1107:. Syracuse University Press. pp. 1–29.
1101:Novak, Frank G. Jr. (2007). "Introduction".
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267:Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic
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402:In his 1989 biography of Mumford,
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295:stands by itself." Mumford views
16:1929 biography of Herman Melville
452:that would emerge in the 1930s.
411:identifies Mumford's reading of
432:Published at the height of the
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200:Harcourt, Brace & Company
66:Harcourt, Brace & Company
384:'s review, published in the
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1230:Harcourt (publisher) books
986:Herman Melville in Context
961:. Penguin. pp. 41–43.
928:Herman Melville in Context
116:Conception and publication
1220:Biographies about writers
1073:The New England Quarterly
333:The New England Quarterly
127:, as depicted in 1870 by
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1128:. Boydell & Brewer.
345:. Murray concludes that
187:Evert Augustus Duyckinck
1122:Yothers, Brian (2011).
183:New York Public Library
1205:Books by Lewis Mumford
949:(1968) . "Review". In
471:, pp. 268, 275–7.
330:Reviewing the book in
202:. On its publication,
170:and late-19th-century
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1010:Lewis Mumford: A Life
279:In his discussion of
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1215:American biographies
527:, pp. 268, 281.
318:Contemporary reviews
192:Boni & Liveright
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1070:by Lewis Mumford".
1066:(1929). "Review of
1035:American Literature
1032:by Lewis Mumford".
910:, pp. 270–271.
355:American Literature
160:Nathaniel Hawthorne
156:Henry David Thoreau
152:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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975:The New York Times
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438:literary modernism
375:The New York Times
372:Herbert Gorman of
313:Critical reception
168:American Civil War
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129:Joseph Oriel Eaton
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1005:Miller, Donald L.
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398:Later evaluations
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641:Murray 1929
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564:Miller 1989
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513:Miller 1989
484:Miller 1989
469:Miller 1989
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1210:1929 books
1199:Categories
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918:References
896:Novak 2007
860:Blair 1968
848:Blair 1968
836:Blair 1968
824:Moore 1929
704:Moore 1929
446:synecdoche
442:Moby-Dick
413:Moby-Dick
392:Moby-Dick
360:Moby-Dick
343:Moby-Dick
336:in 1929,
325:Moby-Dick
302:Moby-Dick
297:Moby-Dick
281:Moby-Dick
272:Moby-Dick
99:Moby-Dick
62:Publisher
1007:(1989).
957:(eds.).
222:Overview
44:Language
1191:in 1928
1056:2919915
292:Odyssey
289:or the
249:Redburn
137:viewed
52:Subject
47:English
1174:(1962)
1162:(1929)
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1090:JSTOR
1052:JSTOR
456:Notes
237:Typee
1130:ISBN
1109:ISBN
1015:ISBN
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933:ISBN
362:and
252:and
243:Omoo
162:and
77:1929
1082:doi
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265:'s
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246:,
240:,
218:.
174:.
158:,
154:,
112:.
1146:.
1117:.
1096:.
1084::
1078:2
1058:.
1046::
1040:1
1023:.
999:.
978:.
941:.
838:.
679:.
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