Early success, a failed masterwork, oblivion, rediscovery. This was the career of Melville. After the failure of Moby Dick, Melville wrote an extraordinary book (I think it's as good) that painfully satirized some of what he must have been feeling, Pierre, or The Ambiguities. Had a grad student in Michigan not beat me to it, I planned to write my PhD thesis on this, showing the academic world what a brilliant book Pierre was -- and then I may never have become a writer. But the Michigan dude got there first, and being first in an unpopular argument is everything, so I had the usual grad student nervous breakdown and dropped out of school. And returned a writer.
clipped from www.todayinliterature.com
clipped from www.todayinliterature.com
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