Call Me Ishmael [Paperback]

Charles Olson (Author), Merton M. Sealts Jr. (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 1997

First published in 1947, this acknowledged classic of American literary criticism explores the influences—especially Shakespearean ones—on Melville's writing of Moby-Dick. One of the first Melvilleans to advance what has since become known as the "theory of the two Moby-Dicks," Olson argues that there were two versions of Moby-Dick, and that Melville's reading King Lear for the first time in between the first and second versions of the book had a profound impact on his conception of the saga: "the first book did not contain Ahab," writes Olson, and "it may not, except incidentally, have contained Moby-Dick." If literary critics and reviewers at the time responded with varying degrees of skepticism to the "theory of the two Moby-Dicks," it was the experimental style and organization of the book that generated the most controversy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Not only important, but apocalyptic.

(New York Herald Tribune )

One of the most stimulating essays ever written on Moby Dick, and for that matter on any piece of literature, and the forces behind it.

(San Francisco Chronicle )

Olson has been a tireless student of Melville and every Melville lover owes him a debt for his Scotland Yard pertinacity in getting on the trail of Melville's dispersed library.

(Lewis Mumford New York Times )

Book Description

One of the most stimulating essays ever written on Moby Dick, and for that matter on any piece of literature, and the forces behind it."— San Francisco Chronicle

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (October 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801857317
• ISBN-13: 978-0801857317
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will seek the White Whale as Ahab did., April 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Call Me Ishmael (Paperback)

In brief, "Call Me Ishmael" is the most interesting piece of literary criticism I've ever read. Foreshadowing his future leanings as a poet, Olson writes "Ishmael" more like a prose poem than stodgy dissertation. Yet, however unique the form, it seems strangely predetermined. For it is only through a poetic nature that it could distill such huge, multilayered concepts into an accessible and short (119 pg.) essay. This reissue--it was first published in 1947--takes the reader through Shakespearean influence on "Moby Dick," Melville's struggle with faith, and the importance of place--to name only three examples. The future rector of the short-lived, yet highly influential, Black Mountain College in North Carolina, creates an energy out of words bested only by "The Whale" itself. As Olson stated to his colleague, Merton Sealts, Jr., who wrote the new afterword to the essay: "I see that The White Death has descended upon You too." And it will upon you as well. After reading this incisive, lyrical, and engaging piece, you will want to return to "Moby Dick" before you've closed its pages.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literary criticism becomes art, August 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Call Me Ishmael (Paperback)

It should come as no surprise that the world's greatest novel would inspire the world's greatest essay of literary criticism. Sadly, Olson's ideas did not appeal to members of the elite Melville Society, and to this day they still consider him a "crank." A real pity, because Olson will be remembered long after they are forgotten.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More Melville research than Moby-Dick criticism, September 6, 2008

By 

Wilf Gehlen "member, MASSOLIT" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Call Me Ishmael (Paperback)

Charles Olson selected a snappy title for his book, but his elliptical writing style and the few interesting nuggets of knowledge that he offers up preclude a more enthusiastic recommendation. Another critic of Melville writes that, in Call Me Ishmael, Olson "rather enigmatically" relates Moby-Dick to the Osiris myth of ancient Egypt (one of the nuggets). Those who find this book more "lyrical" than elliptical and enigmatic, should read the section on Moby-Dick in Studies in Classic American Literature (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence). It, too, avoids the style of "stodgy dissertation," but is better written and predates Olson's work by 2 decades. Olson offers evidence from Melville's letters and writings that he initially wrote a more pedestrian whaling book for the mass market, then, inspired by Hawthorne and Shakespeare, transformed it over the course of a year into the poetic epic that we read today. Jean-Paul Sartre suspected this multi-stage development as he reviewed the French translation of Moby-Dick, and this supporting information is important to those interested in the author as well as the work. I found Olson's explanation of the Bulkington character most interesting, as his brief, but pointed, introduction and immediate fade to nothingness in Moby-Dick is itself enigmatic. After reading Call Me Ishmael you may want to move on to the compendium of criticism, Twentieth Century Interpretations of Moby-Dick: A Collection of Critical Essays (A Spectrum Book) (M.T.Gilmore, ed.). Gilmore includes the chapter "Captain Ahab and His Fool" from Call Me Ishmael (another nugget relating Ahab and Pip to Lear) but offers as well a wide range of other criticism, touching romantic symbolism, 19th century American technological sociology, biblical metaphor, and more.