ISRAEL POTTER. His Fifty Years of Exile
by Melville Herman
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Newburyport, Massachusetts, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Between 1875 and 1920 Melville had fallen deep into obscurity. William P. Trent's A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1903, gives Melville but three pages out of 593, and Wendell and Greenough's A HISTORY OF LITERATURE IN AMERICA, 1904, gives him nothing at all. The author's star began to rise in 1921 with the publication of Weaver's biography.
The first volume of the collected works was published the following year and did much to expand American awareness of Melville's art. It stands alone as a truly important edition with the inclusion of all of Melville's work known at the time including 'The Poems' and 'Billy Budd,' both of which were here published separately for the first time. ISRAEL POTTER, His Fifty Years of Exile appears as Volume XI of the Standard Edition set.
Potter's story is according to Howes "purported autobiography, of dubious authenticity" and tells of the life of Potter an American injured at the Battle of Bunker Hill who was taken prisoner by the English, conveyed to England where he was forced to remain scratching a livelihood for himself and his family by crying "old chairs to mend" through the streets of London. With the assistance of Congress, he finally succeeded (at the age of 79) in returning to his native county in 1823 after 48 years of exile. According to Potter's account he had been a veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill, a sailor in the Revolutionary navy, a prisoner of the British, an escapee in England, a secret agent and courier in France, and a 45-year exile from his native land as a laborer, pauper, and peddler in London.
This very scarce, and somewhat obscure, piece was read by a young Herman Melville, who eventually turned it into his only historical novel, "Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile", published in 1855. Melville's plot combines a number of Potter's claimed encounters, such as King George III, Horne Tooke, and Benjamin Franklin, with some he never had, such as Ethan Allen and John Paul Jones.
Synopsis
The authoritative edition of Melville's only historical novel Based on the life of an actual soldier who claimed to have fought at Bunker Hill, Israel Potter is unique among Herman Melville's books: a novel in the guise of a biography. In telling the story of Israel Potter's fall from Revolutionary War hero to peddler on the streets of London, where he obtained a livelihood by crying "Old Chairs to Mend," Melville alternated between invented scenes and historical episodes, granting cameos to such famous men of the era as Benjamin Franklin (Potter may have been his secret courier) and John Paul Jones, and providing a portrait of the American Revolution as the rollicking adventure and violent series of events that it really was. This edition of Israel Potter , which reproduces the definitive text, includes selections from Potter's autobiography, Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter , the basis for Melville's novel.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Buddenbrooks, Inc. (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 32712
- Title
- ISRAEL POTTER. His Fifty Years of Exile
- Author
- Melville Herman
- Book Condition
- Used
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Constable & Co.
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1923
Terms of Sale
Buddenbrooks, Inc.
About the Seller
Buddenbrooks, Inc.
About Buddenbrooks, Inc.
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