ISBN10: 0375403140, ISBN13: 9780375403149, [publisher: Knopf] Hardcover First Edition 1st edition, 1st printing. Signed by author on title page. Crisp, clean throughout w/just a slight lean forward at the spine.
[W. Stockbridge, MA, U.S.A.] [Publication Year: 2005]

Knopf, Date: 2005-09-20. Hardcover. Used:Good. 2005. Knopf ISBN 0375403140 9780375403149 [US]

ISBN10: 0375403140, ISBN13: 9780375403149, [publisher: Alfred A. Knopf] Softcover Advance Reader's Copy of Uncorrected Proof in paperback. Bright, clean & tight ARC copy, unread, in FINE condition. "Hailed by Time as 'America's best social critic,' Andrew Delbanco now gives us--with unparalleled historical and critical perspective--a commanding biography and a riveting portrait of the nation. The grandson of Revolutionary War heroes, Herman Melville was born into a family that in the fledgling republic had lost both money and status. Toughened at sea as a young man and quintessentially American--half New Yorker, half New Englander--he returned home to chronicle the deepest crises of his time while forever shaping our literature with Moby-Dick, 'Bartleby, the Scrivener,' Benito Cereno, and Billy Budd. Delbanco traces Melville's growth from the bawdy storytelling of Typee through the spiritual preoccupations building up to Moby-Dick, and the profound disillusionment of later works, even as he charts a life that left little evidence in its wake and was, long before Melville's death, consigned to obscurity. He uncovers autobiographical traces throughout Melville's writing, shows the relentless financial pressure and declining critical and popular esteem that plagued his career, and, above all, illuminates the stunning achievements of his oeuvre. Finally we understand how Melville, more than any other American writer, ...