241:, saying that each "ends in disaster and death" and that "each is a tragedy (as was Melville's life)...." Tragedy, Weaver went on, was not the representation of human misery," but" the representation of human goodness or nobility," for only when "worldly disaster has worked its utmost can we realize that there remains something in man's soul which is for ever beyond the grasp of the accidents of existence, with power in its own right to make life beautiful. Only through tragedy of this type could Melville affirm his everlasting yea..."
193:(1921) was the first full-length study of Melville. Weaver presents Melville as a disappointed and disillusioned genius who rebelled against social convention and paid the price: "His whole history is the record of an attempt to escape from an inexorable and intolerable world of reality." Weaver praises Melville for establishing the South Seas as a suitable topic for literature and for his depictions of a sailor's sea-life, but saved his highest praise for
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could ask the eternal pedagogic question: "What do you mean, Mr. Doe, by 'interesting'?", and make it sound like an irrefutable accusation of incompetence; and yet he did not merely terrify, he taught. What he taught was an outlook of combined wonder and critical resiliency. Never to take literary platitudes at their face value, and never to become a cheap skeptic...
421:, is entirely misleading. Weaver used the phrase the "Long Quietus" to envision Melville's three decades of "prolific poetic production as an extended period of failing artistic power that amounted to nothing but silence." In fact, Renker argues, while Melville wrote fiction for only a little more than a decade, he wrote and published poems for more than 30 years.
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heathen for an occasional convert and, when off-duty, indulging in a good deal of spiteful and narrow gossip....." The plot revolves around a bigoted missionary, his dying wife, their son, who has fallen in love with a
Japanese girl, and an older woman whose almost sexual doting on the son turns to revulsion when she sees him in the arms of the Japanese girl.
200:
The warm reception and wide circulation of Weaver's biography made it a prime source for later biographers who were not always aware that, in the words of a recent
Melville scholar, "it is often inaccurate in its details and too dependent on Melville's travel narratives for autobiographical reference
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was first a student and then a colleague. Trilling's wife recalled that Weaver was "outspokenly hostile until a long time afterward when his enmity changed into affection as precipitously as it had appeared..." After Weaver's death, Trilling said that he was "personally and intensely implicated in
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in which he could have carried his entire library; he spoke with an accent of perfect clarity and force, but which apart from him was never heard on land or sea. He dramatized the whole of life which was wonderful for the teaching of literature and aesthetics but petrifying in personal relations. He
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in their doubts about the superiority of the West over the East. The reviewer concluded that Weaver was "no great lover of the gospel in far lands." The novel pictured the "sincere but wasted effort of a community of evangelical
Christians engaged in a sort of spiritual shadow boxing, raiding the
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The
General Honors program at Columbia, which emphasized the close reading of Great Books of Western Civilization, was developed by a group of faculty who, in the words of a semi-official history, "were at odds with the research ethos that permeated their departments" and who "saw themselves as
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in 1910. In pursuit of teaching, he went to Japan, where he taught
English in Hiroshima, and started his career as a writer by publishing articles of travel and reporting. He returned to become a graduate student at Columbia University, where his initial interest was in the literature of the
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Preparing that article led to a realization that a biography was needed, and his decision to fill that gap made Weaver the key player in the "Melville revival" which had been gathering momentum. At Van Doren's urging, he launched into deeper research. In particular, he won the confidence of
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and
Italian Renaissance writers. Weaver was given tenure in 1937, but since he never completed his PhD (and perhaps because he was open about his homosexuality), he was not promoted to full professor until 1946. Weaver died in his apartment near Columbia University in
197:, Melville's "undoubted masterpiece." But Weaver saw the cold reception from critics as leading to the "Long Quietus," that is, Melville's withdrawal from engagement with literature. He characterized Melville's work after 1851 as inferior, sometimes even unacceptable.
224:
In the introduction, Weaver called "Billy Budd" a "novel finished by
Melville five months before his death," although later scholars established that in fact Melville was still revising the work when he died. Weaver wrote in the Introduction for the 1928 edition for
354:, the future scholar of mythology. Weaver told Campbell in the 1920s that he should not continue PhD work because he would not find what he was looking for in graduate school, but gave him a list of readings. Another who credited Weaver was the publisher
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teachers and only incidentally as professors...." They may also, the history adds, have placed a higher value on "the good life" than on a "successful career." Weaver, known to his friends as "Buck," was a leading member of this group, which included
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The scholars who came after him credit Weaver with writing the first biography of
Melville and launching the Melville Revival, but also point out weaknesses in interpretation and misstatements which came from lack of information. The scholar
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after a heavy snow-storm knocked out power to the upper west side of New York and left others without water. Weaver appeared on campus freshly shaved. When a student asked how he had done it, and Weaver replied, "I boiled ice cubes."
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to mark the centennial of
Melville's birth in November, 1919. Weaver at first thought the project would be "child's play" and "a day's job," but when he went to the library, he was surprised to find that while there were many works
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magazine, had discovered the works of
Melville and was impressed by Weaver's "ability to deal with a speculative subject." When they were seated side by side at a faculty dinner, Van Doren commissioned Weaver to write an article for
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and documentation." Later scholars also hold Weaver partly responsible for the idea that Melville withdrew from literature; it is now more widely held that he turned to poetry, a genre in which he is now recognized as a leader.
410:, and that "this foreshortening was disproportionate..." Calling these two chapters "The Great Refusal" and "The Long Quietus" created an impression of Melville's "collapse into misanthrophy if not actual insanity...."
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Weaver was an influential teacher. He published a novel, wrote introductions for editions of American fiction, book reviews, and literary essays, but never published another scholarly book after his book on Melville.
136:, then was hired by Columbia to replace a socialist professor who had been fired because of his peace activities (Weaver left to teach again at Brooklyn Polytechnic, only to return to Columbia for good in 1922).
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Melville's granddaughter, Eleanor Metcalf, who had inherited the Melville family papers and documents. Weaver's most important discovery among these papers was the unfinished manuscript for
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were close to Weaver. Ginsberg, who was uncomfortable in the homophobic atmosphere at Columbia, recalled that Weaver was gay, and Kerouac recalled that Weaver gave him a list of books on
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Students recalled his disdain for popular literature. One story recounted decades later was that Weaver was at a cocktail party in the late 1930s when a guest asked him if he had read
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was "born in hell-fire, and baptized in an unspeakable name" and that it "reads like a great opium dream," but contains "some of the most finished comedy in the language."
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is set in Japan, where Weaver had taught English for three years, and presents a critical view of missionaries and intense psychological family relations. The reviewer in
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217:, whose manuscript he had found in 1919. It appeared in the last volume of a 13-volume edition of Melville's works which he helped the British publisher
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98:(1819–1891) in 1921 and editing Melville's works. Weaver's scholarly credentials, training, and persuasiveness were important in launching the "
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Later Melvillians further hold Weaver among those responsible for the lingering notion that Melville suffered from an inability to write after
342:, on the morning of April 4, 1948, at the age of 59. He had recently been treated at a New York hospital, apparently for suicidal depression.
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that the story was "witness to ultimate faith that evil is defeat and natural goodness invincible in the affections of man." He compared
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313:. When the guest said no, the professor said, "Well, you should. It's been out 600 years." Another student recalled Weaver's
285:, among others. Weaver continued to teach Dante and Renaissance literature, however, in addition to the General Honors course.
487:. Pequod edition of Herman Melville's collected works. edited and introduced by Raymond M. Weaver. New York: A. & C. Boni.
476:. Pequod edition of Herman Melville's collected works. edited and introduced by Raymond M. Weaver. New York: A. & C. Boni.
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Raymond Weaver was celebrated for a multitude of eminences. He had invented Herman Melville; he had lived in Japan; he wore
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every idea he ever dealt with. He related every moment of the classroom to life, and his vision of life was heroic."
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later said that Weaver "came to regard Melville with some irony, as too much a romantic," and that Weaver preferred
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wrote in 1941 that Weaver devoted only two chapters, an eighth of his biography, to all of Melville's career after
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Spark, Clare L. (2006). "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Raymond M. Weaver and the Melville Revival, 1919-1935".
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By the mid-1930s, Weaver had lost interest in Melville. He freely gave advice to
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86:(1888 – April 4, 1948) was a professor of English and comparative literature at
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Renker, Elizabeth (2008), "Melville the Realist Poet", in Wyn Kelley (ed.),
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American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman
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102:" of the 1920s that brought Melville from obscurity to wide recognition.
522:. edited and introduced by Raymond M. Weaver. New York: The Colophon.
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on which Melville had been working at the time of his death in 1891.
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Hunting Captain Ahab: Psychological Warfare and the Melville Revival
646:(1969), "A Recollection of Raymond Weaver", in Wesley First (ed.),
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called it a "strange novel" and compared it to E.M. Forster's 1924
549:"Raymond Weaver, Melville Revival Pioneer: An Annotated Checklist"
431:—— (April 1919). "The Centennial of Herman Melville".
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in 1916–1948, and a literary scholar best known for publishing
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Henry Longan Stuart, "White Man's Burden in a First Novel,"
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One Hundred Years of The Nation: A Centennial Anthology
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Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac
417:. The "narrative of Melville the Failed Poet," says
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Evaluations of Weaver's role in the Melville Revival
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A memoir of the college at this time evoked Weaver:
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Diana Trilling, "Lionel Trilling: A Jew at Columbia
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939:. London, New York: Oxford University Press.
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1046:Teachers College, Columbia University alumni
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536:A History of Columbia College on Morningside
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627:. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press.
462:Volumes in the "Pequod Edition," including
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606:. New York: Columbia University Press.
547:Dunlap-Smith, Aimery de France (2013).
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538:. New York: Columbia University Press.
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231:The Shorter Novels of Herman Melville
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484:Israel Potter, His Fifty Years Exile
211:In 1924 Weaver published Melville's
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191:Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic
185:Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic
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158:Melville there was almost nothing
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277:(with whom he shared an office),
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735:Raymond Weaver, 1924 & 1928
588:, Blackwell, pp. 515–531,
369:In the 1940s the Beat novelist
962:A Companion to Herman Melville
650:, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday
586:A Companion to Herman Melville
134:Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute
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920:(New York: MacMillan, 1999),
602:McCaughey, Robert A. (2003).
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933:Matthiessen, F. O. (1941).
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648:University on the Heights
534:Columbia College (1954).
516:Melville, Herman (1935).
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481:Melville, Herman (1924).
473:Redburn, His First Voyage
470:Melville, Herman (1924).
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584:, in Kelley, Wyn (ed.),
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453:. Frequently reprinted.
325:in preparing his study,
84:Raymond Melbourne Weaver
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795:Columbia College (1954)
766:January 10, 1926 p. BR9
496:—— (1926).
451:. New York: G.H. Doran.
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875:Inner Traditions, 2002
809:Columbia College Today
582:"The Melville Revival"
519:Journal up the Straits
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1016:People from Baltimore
541:Hathi Trust full text
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251:Weaver's 1927 novel
142:, then an editor of
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639:, pp. 205–238.
500:. New York: Viking.
389:, and the American
385:, Melville's novel
361:In the early 1930s
219:Constable & Co.
116:Baltimore, Maryland
114:Weaver was born in
88:Columbia University
33:Baltimore, Maryland
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891:September 6, 2006.
889:The New York Times
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425:Major publications
391:Transcendentalists
373:and the Beat poet
304:Gone With the Wind
261:A Passage to India
257:The New York Times
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310:The Divine Comedy
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214:Billy Budd
206:Billy Budd
177:Billy Budd
166:said that
164:The Nation
151:The Nation
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553:Leviathan
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237:with
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