From a discussion of why Herman Melville's Clarel has never been loved, blaming the lack of accessible copies in print: (the all caps are mine)
"In the first edition of the widely used classroom Norton Anthology of American Literature (1979) Hershel Parker offered thirty-six pages of annotated excerpts, BUT TEACHERS WHO ANSWERED THE PUBLISHER'S QUESTIONAIRRES OVERWHELMINGLY RECOMMENDED DROPPING THE SECTION.
Parker is one of the editors of this edition, and I want to yell at the page, and at all Clarel apologists, "Quit trying to make Clarel a Thing. It will never be a Thing."
"In the first edition of the widely used classroom Norton Anthology of American Literature (1979) Hershel Parker offered thirty-six pages of annotated excerpts, BUT TEACHERS WHO ANSWERED THE PUBLISHER'S QUESTIONAIRRES OVERWHELMINGLY RECOMMENDED DROPPING THE SECTION.
Parker is one of the editors of this edition, and I want to yell at the page, and at all Clarel apologists, "Quit trying to make Clarel a Thing. It will never be a Thing."