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Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography
A double portrait of two of America’s most influential writers that reveals the surprising connections between them—and their uncanny relevance to our age of crisis
Up from the Depths tells the interconnected stories of two of the most important writers in American history—the novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819–1891) and one of his earliest biographers, the literary critic and historian Lewis Mumford (1895–1990). Deftly cutting back and forth between the writers, Aaron Sachs reveals the surprising resonances between their lives, work, and troubled times—and their uncanny relevance in our own age of crisis.
The author of Moby-Dick was largely forgotten for several decades after his death, but Mumford helped spearhead Melville’s revival in the aftermath of World War I and the 1918–1919 flu pandemic, when American culture needed a forebear with a suitably dark vision. As Mumford’s career took off and he wrote books responding to the machine age, urban decay, world war, and environmental degradation, it was looking back to Melville’s confrontation with crises such as industrialization, slavery, and the Civil War that helped Mumford to see his own era clearly. Mumford remained obsessed with Melville, ultimately helping to canonize him as America’s greatest tragedian. But largely forgotten today is one of Mumford’s key insights—that Melville’s darkness was balanced by an inspiring determination to endure.
Amid today’s foreboding over global warming, racism, technology, pandemics, and other crises, Melville and Mumford remind us that we’ve been in this struggle for a long time. To rediscover these writers today is to rediscover how history can offer hope in dark times.
A double portrait of two of America’s most influential writers that reveals the surprising connections between them—and their uncanny relevance to our age of crisis
Up from the Depths tells the interconnected stories of two of the most important writers in American history—the novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819–1891) and one of his earliest biographers, the literary critic and historian Lewis Mumford (1895–1990). Deftly cutting back and forth between the writers, Aaron Sachs reveals the surprising resonances between their lives, work, and troubled times—and their uncanny relevance in our own age of crisis.
The author of Moby-Dick was largely forgotten for several decades after his death, but Mumford helped spearhead Melville’s revival in the aftermath of World War I and the 1918–1919 flu pandemic, when American culture needed a forebear with a suitably dark vision. As Mumford’s career took off and he wrote books responding to the machine age, urban decay, world war, and environmental degradation, it was looking back to Melville’s confrontation with crises such as industrialization, slavery, and the Civil War that helped Mumford to see his own era clearly. Mumford remained obsessed with Melville, ultimately helping to canonize him as America’s greatest tragedian. But largely forgotten today is one of Mumford’s key insights—that Melville’s darkness was balanced by an inspiring determination to endure.
Amid today’s foreboding over global warming, racism, technology, pandemics, and other crises, Melville and Mumford remind us that we’ve been in this struggle for a long time. To rediscover these writers today is to rediscover how history can offer hope in dark times.
472 pages, Hardcover
Published June 7, 2022
18 people are currently reading
352 people want to read
About the author
Aaron Sachs
11 books15 followersResearch and Teaching Interests
My general focus is on nature and culture: I wander through parks, cemeteries, and wilderness areas (often with my kids), stare at landscape paintings and photographs, and re-read Thoreau, all in an effort to figure out how ideas about nature have changed over time and how those changes have mattered in the western world. My primary appointment is in the History department, but my Ph.D. is in American Studies, and I remain fully committed to interdisciplinary work. In my graduate teaching, I regularly work with students not only in History but also in English, Science and Technology Studies, History of Architecture, Anthropology, and Natural Resources. On the undergraduate level, I teach courses ranging from an overview of environmental history to seminars on consumerism, the American West, the meanings of wilderness, and the road trip in American culture.
Another strong interest is in creative writing, and I happily serve as the faculty sponsor of a radical underground organization called Historians Are Writers, which brings together Cornell graduate students who believe that academic writing can actually be moving on a deeply human level. I also seek to support innovative history writing through a book series at Yale University Press, called New Directions in Narrative History (John Demos and I are the co-editors).
At Cornell, I’m also the founder and coordinator of the Cornell Roundtable on Environmental Studies Topics (CREST), which holds lunchtime events on campus and also sponsors evening sessions where we discuss relevant books and articles that we’ve read in common. And I’m currently serving as a house fellow at Flora Rose House on West Campus, where you’ll sometimes see me at the dining hall, trying to lasso my three young children as they attempt to lure unsuspecting undergraduates into a food fight.
My general focus is on nature and culture: I wander through parks, cemeteries, and wilderness areas (often with my kids), stare at landscape paintings and photographs, and re-read Thoreau, all in an effort to figure out how ideas about nature have changed over time and how those changes have mattered in the western world. My primary appointment is in the History department, but my Ph.D. is in American Studies, and I remain fully committed to interdisciplinary work. In my graduate teaching, I regularly work with students not only in History but also in English, Science and Technology Studies, History of Architecture, Anthropology, and Natural Resources. On the undergraduate level, I teach courses ranging from an overview of environmental history to seminars on consumerism, the American West, the meanings of wilderness, and the road trip in American culture.
Another strong interest is in creative writing, and I happily serve as the faculty sponsor of a radical underground organization called Historians Are Writers, which brings together Cornell graduate students who believe that academic writing can actually be moving on a deeply human level. I also seek to support innovative history writing through a book series at Yale University Press, called New Directions in Narrative History (John Demos and I are the co-editors).
At Cornell, I’m also the founder and coordinator of the Cornell Roundtable on Environmental Studies Topics (CREST), which holds lunchtime events on campus and also sponsors evening sessions where we discuss relevant books and articles that we’ve read in common. And I’m currently serving as a house fellow at Flora Rose House on West Campus, where you’ll sometimes see me at the dining hall, trying to lasso my three young children as they attempt to lure unsuspecting undergraduates into a food fight.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 2, 2023
Superb. This is a dual portrait of two American writers, Herman Melville (1819-1891) and Lewis Mumford (1895-1990), as well as an exercise in seeing the past in the present and the continuity of man’s attempts to deal with the reality and challenges of his time. The past echoes throughout the rolling present and humanity would be wise to take instruction.
The book provides an elegant symmetry: Melville probes his life, imagination and experience of mid-19th century modernity; Mumford (a biographer of Melville) wrestles with Melville’s writing in forming his own thought and reckoning with the traumas of 20th century modernity; and Sachs emerges occasionally in the narrative to point out just how long we have been dealing with the same problems—dominance of technology, extractive capitalism, wholesale war and destruction. Modernity and its challenges to human flourishing has been going on a long time.
Lewis Mumford, if remembered at all, is probably out of fashion, but it would be well to revive his thinking and recapture his deep humanism. I was sobered throughout my reading of this book to realize the extent to which the troubles of our present time were writings on the wall when Melville was writing his novels. The writing was still on the wall when Mumford was writing and thinking: all of it, our fractured politics, rapacious wealth, economic inequality, institutionalized injustice was recognized and foreseen—up to and including the current pandemic and climate crisis.
Mumford believed in engaging with the new without throwing out the past. He didn’t see the problems as so very different from era to era and that the human, communal adaptations effected in one time were not irrelevant to a later time. Clearly he was an idealist (not a utopian!), and I come away from this book reaffirmed in a conviction that a humane, human-scaled idealism is precisely the clear-eyed, hard-headed thinking that all our predicaments call for right now.
Both Melville and Mumford were complicated men with deep family ties, and seekers with interesting experiences. Their lives chime with each other and the biographical material provides some of the most fascinating parts of the book.
The book provides an elegant symmetry: Melville probes his life, imagination and experience of mid-19th century modernity; Mumford (a biographer of Melville) wrestles with Melville’s writing in forming his own thought and reckoning with the traumas of 20th century modernity; and Sachs emerges occasionally in the narrative to point out just how long we have been dealing with the same problems—dominance of technology, extractive capitalism, wholesale war and destruction. Modernity and its challenges to human flourishing has been going on a long time.
Lewis Mumford, if remembered at all, is probably out of fashion, but it would be well to revive his thinking and recapture his deep humanism. I was sobered throughout my reading of this book to realize the extent to which the troubles of our present time were writings on the wall when Melville was writing his novels. The writing was still on the wall when Mumford was writing and thinking: all of it, our fractured politics, rapacious wealth, economic inequality, institutionalized injustice was recognized and foreseen—up to and including the current pandemic and climate crisis.
Mumford believed in engaging with the new without throwing out the past. He didn’t see the problems as so very different from era to era and that the human, communal adaptations effected in one time were not irrelevant to a later time. Clearly he was an idealist (not a utopian!), and I come away from this book reaffirmed in a conviction that a humane, human-scaled idealism is precisely the clear-eyed, hard-headed thinking that all our predicaments call for right now.
Both Melville and Mumford were complicated men with deep family ties, and seekers with interesting experiences. Their lives chime with each other and the biographical material provides some of the most fascinating parts of the book.
January 18, 2024
An excellent dual biography/criticism/response that stresses the continuing importance of Melville and Mumford, who played a crucial role in the "Melville Revival" of the 1920s that rescued Moby-Dick from an obscurity that, in retrospect seems flat out bizarre. Sachs is rightly convinced that both writers offer insights into our time when the possibility of renewal and survival can feel remote. I'd read Mumford decades ago but had pretty much forgotten how important his thought on technology, urban live, and environmentalism had been the 1960s--he anticipates a great deal of the vision driving Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog and Christopher Alexander's crucial A Pattern Language. I came to the book primarily for Melville and, while Sachs doesn't add a lot to Andrew Delblanco's literary biography, his response to the texts, especially Pierre, provides new angles of vision.
August 10, 2025
This book rests on three premises. The first one is that there are strong parallels between the lives of Herman Melville, whom I assume is the favorite writer of most people reading this book (including me), and Lewis Mumford, a semi-influential historian and the author of Melville’s second biography.
The second premise is that the best way to capture these parallels is with the book’s particular structure: chapters that alternate between the two lives and don’t follow a chronological order. For example:
- The first chapter is on Mumford between 1927 and 1929, when he was in his thirties, working on his Melville biography.
- The second one is about Melville between 1856 and 1865, as he struggled with his dissolving writing career and later lived through the American Civil War.
- The third one is Mumford in 1918-19, the years after the Great War.
- The fourth one is about Melville in 1865-1867, the years after the Civil War.
You get the idea. Quoting from the preface:
And the third premise is that Mumford is worth being rediscovered, just as Melville was in the 1920s.
I’m not convinced by any of these three ideas.
---
Let’s start with the connections between Melville and Mumford. Both were extremely smart men who wrote a lot and struggled with being appreciated. They lived through traumatic times. Both had complicated relationships with their wives but stayed with them until the end. And they both tragically lost a son.
There are more things they have in common, but these are the stronger ones in my mind and… I don’t know, they seem dubious to me. Setting aside the obvious connection of Mumford’s lifelong love for Melville, it seems to me that there must be a dozen other authors that fit this bill.
The second premise, the one that gives the book its structure, is the one I disagree with the most. I trust that the author genuinely believes this approach is enlightening. But if I were a less charitable person, I’d think this is just a trick to make the content of the book seem more interesting. I repeat: I don’t really believe that was the author’s intention, and I hate being mean to people who spent years working on a book like this one. But I still felt dragged across timelines for no good reason.
Finally, there’s the idea that Mumford is worth being rediscovered. I don’t mind this but, when you do it in parallel to Melville’s rediscovery—perhaps the most important “saved from obscurity” in the history of literature—then it becomes a harder sell. For starters, Mumford never fell into obscurity the way Melville did. But more importantly, I doubt Mumford had even a fraction of Melville’s greatness. I can’t say this with full confidence because I haven’t really read anything from him, but the ideas and the passages included in the book don’t make me think that he’s even close. This doesn’t mean he’s not worth being rediscovered at all, but it makes the comparison to Melville feel like an overreach.
Perhaps the best way to summarize my point is this: after finishing this book, the only thing by Mumford I feel like reading is his Melville biography.
This review is harsh, but I did enjoy the book most of the time, even when I was annoyed by its structure. Sachs writes well and honestly. The final chapters on Lizzie and Sophie are fantastic. And, while he removes himself from the narrative most of the time, some of my favorite parts of the book are the ones where he inserts himself. Curiously, most of these were related to Mumford. It makes me think that there was a better book to be written here; something that doesn’t unnecessarily experiment with form, and more straightforwardly talks about his relationship with that author. Maybe the more interesting parallel was a different one: between how he feels about Mumford and how Mumford felt about Melville.
The second premise is that the best way to capture these parallels is with the book’s particular structure: chapters that alternate between the two lives and don’t follow a chronological order. For example:
- The first chapter is on Mumford between 1927 and 1929, when he was in his thirties, working on his Melville biography.
- The second one is about Melville between 1856 and 1865, as he struggled with his dissolving writing career and later lived through the American Civil War.
- The third one is Mumford in 1918-19, the years after the Great War.
- The fourth one is about Melville in 1865-1867, the years after the Civil War.
You get the idea. Quoting from the preface:
The alternating Melville and Mumford chapters, the jump cuts between the nineteenth century and the twentieth, are meant especially to capture the continuity that persists in the face of undeniable change, to provide the visceral experience of suddenly hearing history’s uncanny echoes.
And the third premise is that Mumford is worth being rediscovered, just as Melville was in the 1920s.
I’m not convinced by any of these three ideas.
---
Let’s start with the connections between Melville and Mumford. Both were extremely smart men who wrote a lot and struggled with being appreciated. They lived through traumatic times. Both had complicated relationships with their wives but stayed with them until the end. And they both tragically lost a son.
There are more things they have in common, but these are the stronger ones in my mind and… I don’t know, they seem dubious to me. Setting aside the obvious connection of Mumford’s lifelong love for Melville, it seems to me that there must be a dozen other authors that fit this bill.
The second premise, the one that gives the book its structure, is the one I disagree with the most. I trust that the author genuinely believes this approach is enlightening. But if I were a less charitable person, I’d think this is just a trick to make the content of the book seem more interesting. I repeat: I don’t really believe that was the author’s intention, and I hate being mean to people who spent years working on a book like this one. But I still felt dragged across timelines for no good reason.
Finally, there’s the idea that Mumford is worth being rediscovered. I don’t mind this but, when you do it in parallel to Melville’s rediscovery—perhaps the most important “saved from obscurity” in the history of literature—then it becomes a harder sell. For starters, Mumford never fell into obscurity the way Melville did. But more importantly, I doubt Mumford had even a fraction of Melville’s greatness. I can’t say this with full confidence because I haven’t really read anything from him, but the ideas and the passages included in the book don’t make me think that he’s even close. This doesn’t mean he’s not worth being rediscovered at all, but it makes the comparison to Melville feel like an overreach.
Perhaps the best way to summarize my point is this: after finishing this book, the only thing by Mumford I feel like reading is his Melville biography.
This review is harsh, but I did enjoy the book most of the time, even when I was annoyed by its structure. Sachs writes well and honestly. The final chapters on Lizzie and Sophie are fantastic. And, while he removes himself from the narrative most of the time, some of my favorite parts of the book are the ones where he inserts himself. Curiously, most of these were related to Mumford. It makes me think that there was a better book to be written here; something that doesn’t unnecessarily experiment with form, and more straightforwardly talks about his relationship with that author. Maybe the more interesting parallel was a different one: between how he feels about Mumford and how Mumford felt about Melville.
October 25, 2023
I enjoyed the chapters about Herman Melville much more than those about Lewis Mumford. Would have preferred more about Mumford's ideas and books, and a little less about his marital infidelities.
Not sure the "parallel lives" concept worked, but the book did hold my interest.
Not sure the "parallel lives" concept worked, but the book did hold my interest.
January 18, 2024
I put this book on my reading list immediately upon reading a review of it in Slate (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2...). I waited in vain for it to come to my library; I eventually got it for Christmas, but then waited for over a year to read it, because I wanted the feeling to strike.
I've actually read neither Herman Melville nor Lewis Mumford, though I've intended to read the former and have encountered the latter in class. This book isn't a straightforward biography, and you shouldn't go in expecting one (though each writer's life is laid out thoroughly and in detail). Instead, you need to take the book for what it is: a series of linked pairs of essays drawing out relevance from Melville, Mumford, and the Melville-Mumford relationship. These pairings focus on each man's idea of resilience, social reformation, and the importance of looking to historical lessons in the face of the social and technological crises of modernism.
Now, it's possible that a scholar of either man would find a lot to quibble with here, and the author definitely imposes his own interpretations on things. I don't always trust a brief quote. Regardless, I found the book to be very compelling, looking holistically at the evolution of each writer's work and the way they interpreted the evolving world around them (Melville traveling through the pre-Civil War political crisis, the Civil War itself, and the sprawl of the Gilded Age; Mumford of course through both World Wars, the Depression, the onset of the Cold War, and the '60s). The book was downright inspirational in the way that it showed each writer returning again and again to ideas of resiliency and renewal in the face of difficult times: never despairing more than temporarily, never losing hope. The long-suffering women in their lives come across as particularly compelling, and I found the ups and downs of Mumford's marriage, and his wife's embrace of the big picture of their relationship, to be very interesting.
I look forward to revisiting this book, to quoting it, to referencing it when I finally read Melville (and perhaps Mumford). I've had Moby-Dick or, The Whale on my reading list for some time (I'm finishing Proust, okay?) but this convinced me to tackle other books in Melville's oeuvre as well. I'm sure it will add fullness to my read, and help me, long after English class is over, to interpret and analyze it more intelligently.
I've actually read neither Herman Melville nor Lewis Mumford, though I've intended to read the former and have encountered the latter in class. This book isn't a straightforward biography, and you shouldn't go in expecting one (though each writer's life is laid out thoroughly and in detail). Instead, you need to take the book for what it is: a series of linked pairs of essays drawing out relevance from Melville, Mumford, and the Melville-Mumford relationship. These pairings focus on each man's idea of resilience, social reformation, and the importance of looking to historical lessons in the face of the social and technological crises of modernism.
Now, it's possible that a scholar of either man would find a lot to quibble with here, and the author definitely imposes his own interpretations on things. I don't always trust a brief quote. Regardless, I found the book to be very compelling, looking holistically at the evolution of each writer's work and the way they interpreted the evolving world around them (Melville traveling through the pre-Civil War political crisis, the Civil War itself, and the sprawl of the Gilded Age; Mumford of course through both World Wars, the Depression, the onset of the Cold War, and the '60s). The book was downright inspirational in the way that it showed each writer returning again and again to ideas of resiliency and renewal in the face of difficult times: never despairing more than temporarily, never losing hope. The long-suffering women in their lives come across as particularly compelling, and I found the ups and downs of Mumford's marriage, and his wife's embrace of the big picture of their relationship, to be very interesting.
I look forward to revisiting this book, to quoting it, to referencing it when I finally read Melville (and perhaps Mumford). I've had Moby-Dick or, The Whale on my reading list for some time (I'm finishing Proust, okay?) but this convinced me to tackle other books in Melville's oeuvre as well. I'm sure it will add fullness to my read, and help me, long after English class is over, to interpret and analyze it more intelligently.
June 17, 2022
Brilliant, masterful, an instant classic of American cultural history. Sachs demonstrates great empathy for two complicated giants of American letters. The parallels between the eras of Melville and his biographer Mumford are remarkable; and yet, when understood in the broader sweep of history, can seem almost inevitable.
June 30, 2025
the sort of intricate literary undertaking that baffles the mind. aaron sachs does a crazy good job of mumfordian biographical analysis; the subjects being mumford himself and mumford's biographical subject, herman melville. you get a sense of the fullness of the individual, the fullness of their work, and the threads that tie them together and make them so fully relevant to each other.
while spending most of its time in the 19th-20th centuries, the last chapter re-contextualizes mumford's takes as depressingly prescient for the current moment. not totally out of character for mumford's ideas (probably mostly expected/unsurprising), but it makes you sad. it makes you think that everything you just read, the works of men and the works of these men might have been for naught. but even if the world comes to fire and destruction... ;P
things, ideas, and people like this will always matter because they mean something in just having existed and endured
while spending most of its time in the 19th-20th centuries, the last chapter re-contextualizes mumford's takes as depressingly prescient for the current moment. not totally out of character for mumford's ideas (probably mostly expected/unsurprising), but it makes you sad. it makes you think that everything you just read, the works of men and the works of these men might have been for naught. but even if the world comes to fire and destruction... ;P
things, ideas, and people like this will always matter because they mean something in just having existed and endured
September 19, 2022
An excellent piece of art.
October 1, 2022
Excellent read, alternating events and ideas from the lives of Melville and Mumford, examining Melville's life long influence on Mumford and his ideas on progress, politics and the environment.
December 7, 2023
"Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times" by Professor Aaron Sachs warrants a three-star review from my perspective. While I appreciate the author's evident commitment to in-depth research and the development of intricate theories, I found the heavy political emphasis to be a significant drawback that affected my overall enjoyment of the book.
On the positive side, Sachs exhibits commendable scholarly rigor and a deep understanding of his subjects, Herman Melville and Lewis Mumford. The book is a testament to the author's dedication to uncovering historical and literary connections, providing readers with a wealth of information and insights into the lives and works of these influential figures.
However, the persistent injection of political commentary throughout the narrative detracts from the book's potential appeal to a broader audience. As a reader, I felt that the political biases overshadowed the exploration of Melville and Mumford's contributions to literature and culture. The heavy-handed approach may alienate those who prefer a more balanced and objective analysis of historical and literary subjects.
While I applaud Sachs for his intellectual endeavors, I would caution potential readers who may be put off by the book's strong political stance. For those with a specific interest in the intersection of literature and politics, this work may offer valuable insights, but others seeking a more neutral and balanced examination might find the heavy politicization less satisfying. Overall, "Up from the Depths" has its merits, but the political emphasis limits its broad accessibility and potential appeal.
On the positive side, Sachs exhibits commendable scholarly rigor and a deep understanding of his subjects, Herman Melville and Lewis Mumford. The book is a testament to the author's dedication to uncovering historical and literary connections, providing readers with a wealth of information and insights into the lives and works of these influential figures.
However, the persistent injection of political commentary throughout the narrative detracts from the book's potential appeal to a broader audience. As a reader, I felt that the political biases overshadowed the exploration of Melville and Mumford's contributions to literature and culture. The heavy-handed approach may alienate those who prefer a more balanced and objective analysis of historical and literary subjects.
While I applaud Sachs for his intellectual endeavors, I would caution potential readers who may be put off by the book's strong political stance. For those with a specific interest in the intersection of literature and politics, this work may offer valuable insights, but others seeking a more neutral and balanced examination might find the heavy politicization less satisfying. Overall, "Up from the Depths" has its merits, but the political emphasis limits its broad accessibility and potential appeal.
August 16, 2023
The dual-biography gimmick of this book loses some of its edge after a while. Heavily quoted summaries of each author's work often substitute for actual biographical detail.
Want to read
October 25, 2023813.3 MelM
Read
December 30, 2023promised a lot in its introduction. I’m not sure that it fully delivered, but I’m happy I read it.
October 28, 2024
Melville, Mumford, And History
Aaron Sachs tells "the story of two modern wanderers, convinced of their aloneness but still looking for connection" in his new dual biography "Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times" (2022). Sachs, Professor of history and American studies at Cornell University, has the goal of rediscovering Melville's and Mumford's "capacity for realism, connection, and orientation, amid modernity's ongoing traumas." He succeeds admirably.
Some background may be useful. Herman Melville (1819 -- 1891) is best-known as the author of "Moby-Dick", but he wrote many other novels and also wrote poetry. At the time of his death, Melville was almost forgotten, and most of his books were out-of-print.
Lewis Mumford (1895 -- 1990) was a polymath and a generalist. He was a literary critic, student of the city and of urban planning, and a critic of the impact of technology and unrestrained economic activity on American life. Mumford's best known work is "The Renewal of Life" which consists of four large volumes written between 1934 and 1951. Most of Mumford's many books are currently out-of-print.
Relatively early in has career, Mumford wrote on American literature. In 1929 he wrote a biography, "Herman Melville". His book was only the second biography of Melville, following a biography in 1921 by Raymond Weaver. Mumford's book contributed greatly to the revival of interest in Melville among both readers and scholars, and it helped secure Melville's rightful place among great American writers. Mumford continued his engagement with Melville throughout his career, using him often as an inspiration for his own work.
Sachs's book moves in successive chapters between the life and work of Melville and that of Mumford with the aim both of showing common themes and also showing how the work of both writers remains important. With its broad scope, I found the book most interesting in its detail in its description of the work of Melville, which I have long loved, and in the work of Mumford, which, I knew slightly. His chapters cross back and forth between the two authors, with references to many other figures. He wants to show how both Melville and Mumford wrote about the difficulties and tragic nature of modernity -- a highly elusive concept. Melville wrote against the background of the Civil War while Mumford wrote against the background of both World Wars, the 1918 flu pandemic, and the Depression. Both writers had a strong sense of pessimism and of tragedy and yet both over the course of their long lives were able to use their understanding of history and of their own experiences to come to a sense of hope.
The discussion of Melville focuses on "Moby-Dick", "Bartelby", and "Billy Budd". It also includes his lesser-known works, including, the poetry he wrote late in life, such as "Battle-Pieces" and "Clarel". Melville's poetry has received attention in recent years and is included in a 2019 Library of America anthology, "Herman Melville: Complete Poems", edited by Melville scholar Herschel Parker. Sachs' discussion of Mumford ranges broadly over his works from his Melville book through the works in the "Renewal of Life" series through his increasingly abstract philosophical writings, and through his autobiographical writings from late in his life. Sachs's wants to show that Mumford's works deserve to be revisited. I think he succeeds.
Sachs combines his study of the writings of Melville and Mumford with a treatment of their lives, finding many parallels. He finds much to admire in each writer together with many flaws. There are also important parallels, as both Melville and Mumford experienced the death of a child in youth. Both also had long difficult marriages which somehow managed to endure and to surmount their problems, including, in Mumford's case, a series of long affairs.
Sachs often brings his own perspective to bear in his treatment of Melville and Mumford. In particular he is an environmentalist and a student of climate change. He sees this as a significant issue that needs to be addressed as Americans engage with their past, together with issues of gender and race, which neither Melville nor Mumford addressed fully.
"Up from the Depths" is an eloquent thoughtful book about the importance of history and of studying change and continuity in difficult times. I enjoyed revisiting Melville with Sachs, and I enjoyed learning about the works of Lewis Mumford.
Robin Friedman
Aaron Sachs tells "the story of two modern wanderers, convinced of their aloneness but still looking for connection" in his new dual biography "Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times" (2022). Sachs, Professor of history and American studies at Cornell University, has the goal of rediscovering Melville's and Mumford's "capacity for realism, connection, and orientation, amid modernity's ongoing traumas." He succeeds admirably.
Some background may be useful. Herman Melville (1819 -- 1891) is best-known as the author of "Moby-Dick", but he wrote many other novels and also wrote poetry. At the time of his death, Melville was almost forgotten, and most of his books were out-of-print.
Lewis Mumford (1895 -- 1990) was a polymath and a generalist. He was a literary critic, student of the city and of urban planning, and a critic of the impact of technology and unrestrained economic activity on American life. Mumford's best known work is "The Renewal of Life" which consists of four large volumes written between 1934 and 1951. Most of Mumford's many books are currently out-of-print.
Relatively early in has career, Mumford wrote on American literature. In 1929 he wrote a biography, "Herman Melville". His book was only the second biography of Melville, following a biography in 1921 by Raymond Weaver. Mumford's book contributed greatly to the revival of interest in Melville among both readers and scholars, and it helped secure Melville's rightful place among great American writers. Mumford continued his engagement with Melville throughout his career, using him often as an inspiration for his own work.
Sachs's book moves in successive chapters between the life and work of Melville and that of Mumford with the aim both of showing common themes and also showing how the work of both writers remains important. With its broad scope, I found the book most interesting in its detail in its description of the work of Melville, which I have long loved, and in the work of Mumford, which, I knew slightly. His chapters cross back and forth between the two authors, with references to many other figures. He wants to show how both Melville and Mumford wrote about the difficulties and tragic nature of modernity -- a highly elusive concept. Melville wrote against the background of the Civil War while Mumford wrote against the background of both World Wars, the 1918 flu pandemic, and the Depression. Both writers had a strong sense of pessimism and of tragedy and yet both over the course of their long lives were able to use their understanding of history and of their own experiences to come to a sense of hope.
The discussion of Melville focuses on "Moby-Dick", "Bartelby", and "Billy Budd". It also includes his lesser-known works, including, the poetry he wrote late in life, such as "Battle-Pieces" and "Clarel". Melville's poetry has received attention in recent years and is included in a 2019 Library of America anthology, "Herman Melville: Complete Poems", edited by Melville scholar Herschel Parker. Sachs' discussion of Mumford ranges broadly over his works from his Melville book through the works in the "Renewal of Life" series through his increasingly abstract philosophical writings, and through his autobiographical writings from late in his life. Sachs's wants to show that Mumford's works deserve to be revisited. I think he succeeds.
Sachs combines his study of the writings of Melville and Mumford with a treatment of their lives, finding many parallels. He finds much to admire in each writer together with many flaws. There are also important parallels, as both Melville and Mumford experienced the death of a child in youth. Both also had long difficult marriages which somehow managed to endure and to surmount their problems, including, in Mumford's case, a series of long affairs.
Sachs often brings his own perspective to bear in his treatment of Melville and Mumford. In particular he is an environmentalist and a student of climate change. He sees this as a significant issue that needs to be addressed as Americans engage with their past, together with issues of gender and race, which neither Melville nor Mumford addressed fully.
"Up from the Depths" is an eloquent thoughtful book about the importance of history and of studying change and continuity in difficult times. I enjoyed revisiting Melville with Sachs, and I enjoyed learning about the works of Lewis Mumford.
Robin Friedman
January 18, 2023
In this modern play on Plutarch, Aaron Sachs’ attempt to construct the “parallel lives” of his two subjects meets mixed results.
In his portrayal of Melville, he pays special attention to the novelist’s role as a social critic. By giving prolonged treatment to Melville’s early South Seas romances and The Confidence-Man, Sachs manages to portray an author more varied than the image of the monomaniacal genius whose legacy may be reduced to Moby-Dick. The verdict passed by The Confidence-Man on Americans’ characteristic vices holds up: Ours really is a society in which people “are more likely to support new products like the Omni-Balsamic Reinvigerator or the Protean Easy Chair than to engage with deep meditations on faith.” The treatment of Melville is solid, and will inspire many to give his allegedly “minor” works a chance.
Yet the portrait drawn of Mumford falls woefully short. A critic of the cult of technological progress, and a central figure in the establishment of a critical consensus around Melville’s oeuvre, Mumford has been unjustly neglected in the past half century, relegated to a “mere painstaking burrower and grubworm of a poor devil of a Sub-Sub.” A lifelong advocate of “an intelligent partnership between the earth and man,” Mumford’s Technics and Civilization ranks along with the very best of Ivan Illich and Jacques Ellul in the canon of technological critique, and his Sticks and Stones provides a scathing indictment of the trajectory of American architecture that makes walking past One Vanderbilt even more nauseating—no small feat! His insights are especially prescient now, but if any Mumford revival occurs, it will not be spurred on by Up from the Depths. Too often, Sachs dwells on the sexual drama of Mumford’s failed marriage, occasionally digressing to approvingly note Mumford’s position-taking on various issues (Anti-Francoist? Check!), but never substantively engaging with his ideas.
Sachs’ choice to present his subjects in alternating chapters never rises above the level of an uncompelling structural gimmick. Mumford remains worth your time (that Melville is worth your time I take as given), but you would be better served by a direct encounter, rather than this biography.
In his portrayal of Melville, he pays special attention to the novelist’s role as a social critic. By giving prolonged treatment to Melville’s early South Seas romances and The Confidence-Man, Sachs manages to portray an author more varied than the image of the monomaniacal genius whose legacy may be reduced to Moby-Dick. The verdict passed by The Confidence-Man on Americans’ characteristic vices holds up: Ours really is a society in which people “are more likely to support new products like the Omni-Balsamic Reinvigerator or the Protean Easy Chair than to engage with deep meditations on faith.” The treatment of Melville is solid, and will inspire many to give his allegedly “minor” works a chance.
Yet the portrait drawn of Mumford falls woefully short. A critic of the cult of technological progress, and a central figure in the establishment of a critical consensus around Melville’s oeuvre, Mumford has been unjustly neglected in the past half century, relegated to a “mere painstaking burrower and grubworm of a poor devil of a Sub-Sub.” A lifelong advocate of “an intelligent partnership between the earth and man,” Mumford’s Technics and Civilization ranks along with the very best of Ivan Illich and Jacques Ellul in the canon of technological critique, and his Sticks and Stones provides a scathing indictment of the trajectory of American architecture that makes walking past One Vanderbilt even more nauseating—no small feat! His insights are especially prescient now, but if any Mumford revival occurs, it will not be spurred on by Up from the Depths. Too often, Sachs dwells on the sexual drama of Mumford’s failed marriage, occasionally digressing to approvingly note Mumford’s position-taking on various issues (Anti-Francoist? Check!), but never substantively engaging with his ideas.
Sachs’ choice to present his subjects in alternating chapters never rises above the level of an uncompelling structural gimmick. Mumford remains worth your time (that Melville is worth your time I take as given), but you would be better served by a direct encounter, rather than this biography.
March 1, 2023
I read Up from the Depths after tackling the first volume of Lewis Mumford's two volume The Myth of the Machine. Many of the things I read in Mumford's book were intriguing and I wanted to know more about the life of the author.
However, I realized that Mumford was an obscure topic of interest, so I did not have much hope of finding a modern accounting of his life. I was truly shocked, then, to discover the existence of this double biography.
Up from the Depths is highly modern - published in 2022 by Princeton University Press. The author Aaron Sachs is himself a professor at Cornell University. The academic background of this book is not surprisingly pristine, but the writing style suffers from the classic academic issues. It can drag and be overly indirect. However, I appreciate the obvious amount of research Sachs amassed.
In the authors own words: "For my whole career, I have been trying to argue for the generative compatibility of creative nonfiction and scholarly research..."
This book does indeed have a unique structure, with each chapter alternating between the two authors under discussion. The chapters appear to proceed through the lives of the two men largely chronologically, although not entirely so. Sachs must necessarily jump around somewhat to draw connections between the two men.
Overall I enjoyed learning about Mumford and Melville, and about the life-long passion Mumford had for all things Melville.
However, I do not think that Sachs was able to clearly explore the relevance of these two men and their work to the present day. I imagine that, as a historian, the present is not exactly his area of expertise. Unfortunately, that connection is what I was hoping for.
However, I realized that Mumford was an obscure topic of interest, so I did not have much hope of finding a modern accounting of his life. I was truly shocked, then, to discover the existence of this double biography.
Up from the Depths is highly modern - published in 2022 by Princeton University Press. The author Aaron Sachs is himself a professor at Cornell University. The academic background of this book is not surprisingly pristine, but the writing style suffers from the classic academic issues. It can drag and be overly indirect. However, I appreciate the obvious amount of research Sachs amassed.
In the authors own words: "For my whole career, I have been trying to argue for the generative compatibility of creative nonfiction and scholarly research..."
This book does indeed have a unique structure, with each chapter alternating between the two authors under discussion. The chapters appear to proceed through the lives of the two men largely chronologically, although not entirely so. Sachs must necessarily jump around somewhat to draw connections between the two men.
Overall I enjoyed learning about Mumford and Melville, and about the life-long passion Mumford had for all things Melville.
However, I do not think that Sachs was able to clearly explore the relevance of these two men and their work to the present day. I imagine that, as a historian, the present is not exactly his area of expertise. Unfortunately, that connection is what I was hoping for.
April 26, 2024
An engaging and unique bilateral (intellectual?) biography. While in the beginning I had my doubts about why Mumford was deemed interesting enough to be compared to Melville, it came together nicely.
My feeling is that Melville would’ve hated Mumford, although that’s probably an unfair statement given the more puritanical era of Melville. Highly recommend to any fan of either subject
My feeling is that Melville would’ve hated Mumford, although that’s probably an unfair statement given the more puritanical era of Melville. Highly recommend to any fan of either subject
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