Israel Potter: His Fifty Years Of Exile, Volume Eight

Melville's eighth book was begun as a simple rewrite of an obscure little narrative entitled Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter, in which Israel tells the story of his sad fall from Revolutionary hero to London peddler. Following its opening chapter Melville's novel retells that tale, with close adherence to the language and events of the Life, and then, shaking free of the original narrative, alternately moves between invented episodes and historical sources unrelated to the Life. Israel Potter is unique among Melville's books. It is the only one to be offered in the guise of literal biography, the tale presuming to offer an accurate life history of the man Israel Potter who did in fact fight at Bunker Hill. It is also Melville's only historical novel: it presents famous men of the American Revolution - Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, Ethan Allen, and others - in situations that are a matter of historical record.

Melville's eighth book, Israel Potter was begun as a simple rewrite of an obscure little narrative entitled Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter, in which Israel tells the story of his sad fall from Revolutionary hero to London peddler. Following its opening chapter Melville's novel retells that tale, with close adherence to the language and events of the Life, and then, shaking free of the original narrative, alternately moves between invented episodes and historical sources unrelated to the Life.

Israel Potter is unique among Melville's books in several ways. It is the only one to be offered in the guise of literal biography, the tale presuming to present an accurate life history of the man Israel Potter, who did in fact fight at Bunker Hill. It is also Melville's only historical novel: it presents famous men of the American Revolution -- Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, Ethan Allen, and others -- in situations that are a matter of historical record.

In offering the manuscript of Israel Potter to his publisher, George P. Putnam, Melville assured him, "I engage that the story shall contain nothing of any sort to shock the fastidious. There will be very little reflective writing in it; nothing weighty. It is adventure". Melville and Putnam were both aware of the shock that Melville's previous novel, Pierre, had provided its critics; in Israel Potter, Melville was responding to their demands that he respect contemporary moral conventions and that he write a Defoe-style narrative.

The third volume in the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of The Writings of Herman Melville to be issued in a trade paperback format, this book, also includes an Historical Note by and WalterE. Bezanson.