{"product_id":"call-me-ishmael-9780801857317","title":"Call Me Ishmael","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eOne of the most stimulating essays ever written on \u003ci\u003eMoby Dick\u003c\/i\u003e, and for that matter on any piece of literature, and the forces behind it.\"--\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1947, this acknowledged classic of American literary criticism explores the influences--especially Shakespearean ones--on Melville's writing of \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003e. One of the first Melvilleans to advance what has since become known as the \"theory of the two \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dicks\u003c\/i\u003e,\" Olson argues that there were two versions of \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003e, and that Melville's reading \u003ci\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003es,\" it was the experimental style and organization of the book that generated the most controversy. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eCharles Olson \u003c\/b\u003e(1910-1970), an avant garde poet, literary critic, and literary theorist, is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Maximus Poems\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Distances\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Human Universe and Other Essays\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eIn Cold Hell, in Thicket\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50845289840914,"sku":"9780801857317","price":35.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_716e469c-8125-4886-9fa9-0697444f1e2a.jpg?v=1737346857","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/call-me-ishmael-9780801857317","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}