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itself one of the major themes of the book. A modern reader's fascination with Moby-Dick might well begin with attention to
Ishmael's search for forms— a sermon, a dream, a comic set-piece, a midnight ballet, a meditation, and emblematic reading. It is as if finding a temporary form would in itself constitute one of those 'meanings' which Ishmael is always so portentously in search of. Also it is as if Ishmael would stop at nothing in his efforts to entertain, to show off, to perform."
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the black comedy bred by modern wars . . . . Given a temperamental bent toward humor (merely struggling for existence in the pre-Pacific writings), Melville found right here in the whaleboat the perfect incubator for his hyena laugh. It erupts in the sea books; it declines, or perhaps ascends, into subtler ironies in the later years."
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His essay "Melville: Uncommon Common Sailor" emphasized
Melville's humor and ear for language, writing that his "comic flair no doubt began with temperament, nourished by youth and good health. But the nub of its style came right out of the fisheries, especially the sort of hangman's humor not unlike
223:
as what he called the "enfolding sensibility of the novel, the hand that writes the tales, the imagination through which all matters of the book pass." Most earlier critics had placed Ahab at the center of the work, assuming that
Ishmael was merely narrating, rather than struggling with the events as
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His essay "Moby-Dick: Document, Drama, Dream" further argued "It is the narrator who settles in to probe for understanding, summoning evidences from world culture in an effort to break through into meaning . . . . For
Ishmael's struggle with how to tell his tale is under constant discussion, is
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praised the edition, saying "Every now and again a book appears that is destined not only to modify previous criticism but also to stimulate renewed interest in a great man and a great work". The edition "rescues
Melville from himself" for he made nothing easy for the reader.
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because they thought
Melville ended his career in the 1850s when his novels were poorly received. Poetry, in that view, was just a hobby, and Melville a genius neglected by crass society. Bezanson and his cohort of scholars in the
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was hardly noticed by reviewers or the public when it was published in 1876. The poem is 18,000 lines long and full of now unfamiliar allusions. With verse that is "tight, gnarled, and rugged," says
Melville's early biographer
145:, much of the poem depends on complex allusions to the Bible, history, and geography as well as a play of thought that is "intricate, elusive, sometimes shadowy". Melville's first biographers largely dismissed
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who questioned the earlier view that
Melville lost interest in writing in the 1850s when his fiction was poorly received. They showed that Melville turned to poetry, which formed the second half of his career.
166:"at a time when no one else alive could make sense of the whole thing. It is the only one of Melville's books that everyone who has now read it was able to read it only because of one person, Bezanson."
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off the coast of Japan when the war ended. He taught in the
English Department at Harvard for three years, but was attracted to the greater freedom and opportunity to build new programs at
49:
that restored the writer to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s. Bezanson's research and editorial work rescued from neglect
Mevlille's unappreciated epic poem,
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The 1991 Northwestern-Newberry edition incorporates the Hendrick's House notes along with later findings and prints Bezanson's Introduction intact.
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106:. He left graduate school to become a lieutenant and an instructor in the U.S. Naval Air Force, 1943–46. He was on the aircraft carrier
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445:———— (1997). "Herman Melville: Uncommon Common Sailor". In Bryant, John; Milder, Robert (eds.).
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in 1961 and in following editions, which Hershel Parker calculated must be more copies than any other academic essay on
454:———— (1997). Bezanson, Walter; Harrison Hayford; Hershel Parker; G. Thomas Tanselle (eds.).
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Over several decades Bezanson found evidence and developed arguments that Melville based the character Vine on
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284:———— (2015). "Interplanetary Criticism: Notes on Richard Chase's Herman Melville".
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In 1960, Bezanson published the results of his several decades of study in the Hendricks House edition of
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wrote that the "long and searching Introduction" is the "most thorough and penetrating treatment
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and taught there for 35 years. He was a founding member and three-time president of the
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King, Bradley Ray (2015). "Introduction to Walter Bezanson's "Interplanetary Criticism"".
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Bezanson's lengthy essay, "Moby-Dick as a Work of Art," delivered in 1951 as a talk at
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Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile. By Melville. Ed. Harrison Hayford et Al
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He also supplied the "Historical Note" for the Northwestern-Newberry edition of
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41:) was a scholar and critic of American literature best known for his studies of
343:———— (1954). "Melville's Clarel: The Complex Passion".
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314:———— (1954). "Melville's Reading of Arnold's Poetry".
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in Belgium and Ford Foundation Faculty Fellowship 1952-1953
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Parker, Herschel (2012). "Walter E. Bezanson: A Memorial".
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Publications of the Modern Language Association of America
393:———— (1982). "Historical Note".
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to mark the centennial of the American publication of
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94:. He then joined a group of graduate students at
639:by Herman Melville, edited by Walter Bezanson",
752:. Kent State University Press. pp. 31–58.
608:"Why Melville Took Hawthorne to the Holy Land"
449:. Kent State University Press. pp. 31–58.
427:Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land
413:Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land
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280:(Norton Critical Edition, 2019).
719:A Companion to Melville Studies
540:"Walter E. Bezanson (Obituary)"
404:A Companion to Melville Studies
236:. The article is widely cited.
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