A. Robert Lee, Preface to Moby-Dick
Posted here:
A. Robert Lee
Preface to Herman Melville, Moby- Dick
Everyman’s Library edition
London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1975
Lee has great insight into what makes Moby-Dick unique and great.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
October 2022
To have known him, to have loved him
after loneness long;
And then to be estranged in life,
And neither in the wrong;
And now for death to set his seal—
Ease me, a little ease, my song!
– Herman Melville
Herman Melville was a man of deep insight and feeling. And yet it was difficult for him to get close to people.
I apply Melville’s words to me and my relationship with my father. Not exactly, but close enough.
I so wish I could talk with my father now.
Can anyone understand?
Written by me in P. J. Carney’s pub, while reading Wordsworth’s Prelude and reflecting upon each and every phrase.
– Roger W. Smith
Sunday, October 23, 2022
The late William S. (Bill) Dalzell was a very important and valued friend to me, beginning in my twenties when I first came to New York.
We worked at the same place, 218 East 18th Street — technically not for the same employer, since Bill was a self-employed printer.
We hit it off immediately. Bill (as I turned out to be) was a lover of his adopted city. He grew up in Williamsburg, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
He had many pregnant thoughts. We had such interesting conversations.
He was a confirmed bachelor and a creature of habit.
He never worked on weekends.
On Saturday mornings, he would go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He would begin in the cafeteria, nursing a cup of coffee and lost in thought.
He said that for him the museum was like a cathedral. It had that effect on him mentally. Either explicitly or implicitly, he was also thinking of Norte Dame Cathedral. He had been there several times and said it was “the holiest place” he had ever visited.
Which brings to mind the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue.
It has that effect on me. The beautiful building. The interior. The high ceilings and sunlight streaming through. The staff. The “serious,” “dedicated” sense of purpose and calm quietness. The calming and focusing effect it has on me mentally.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
October 2022
‘When Boston Censored Walt Whitman’ – NY Times Magazine 6-19-1927
Posted here (PDF file above):
“When Boston Censored Walt Whitman”
By Frederick P. Hebb Jr.
New York Times Magazine
June 19, 1927
–– posted by Roger W. Smith
October 2022