Status Updates From Melville: A Biography

Honestly, I'm struggling with this one. The book was pretty compelling up to the point Melville returned to the US from the sea. But after that, not so much. Will work on it after the current book.

The early portions of the book are interesting accounts of Melville voyages as a whaler and later as a sailor in the US Navy. However, it has begun to drag, so I moved on to other books, but now I'm reading it again.

"Three years after its publication, Melville would sign a form authorizing the sale of 224 copies of the handsome two-volume edition of Clarel - the first and only one - to a paper mill that could pulp books and turn them into something useful."

Having written successively less & less popular novels, in debt to his publisher, Melville now turns to the commercial art of poetry. His family conspire to get him a job in government.

I'd happily stay up Christmas Eve night with Melville. He's being a bit of a trainwreck.

Must read the Greatest Book in the Universe again.

Enjoying my time with Melville. Don't feel I know him yet. Not enough to call him Herman.