NP re Conrad & Melville

[pynchonoid]

>From the Ishmail list today, re two authors discussed
here from time to time:


Another item in the "Things I found while looking for
something else department" drawn from Lewis Mumford,
My Works and Days (1979)
 
In a letter from Mumford to Henry A. Murray, 26 Jan
1954, Mumford tells a story he heard from
Cubist-artist Fernand Léger (1881-1955):
... he had first come upon Melville's books, as a
young man, in Joseph Conrad's library.  The first
night he had stayed at Conrad's house in England --- I
suppose at Rye -- he remarked on his discovery to
Conrad, and Conrad said:
    "I am glad you found his books: they have had a
great influence on me.  But not in the way you might
think:  not as a writer of the sea;  no, I don't care
especially for 'Typee' or 'Omoo,' or even
'Moby-Dick.'  But it is as a profound psychologist and
metaphysician that I admire him, as a writer who
touched the depths of the human situation, and who
understood the darkest facts about the human
character.  As for me, I do not love the sea;  I hate
it.  I do not write about the sea but about something
quite different:  the ships that defy the sea and the
relations of men who are bounded by the ship."
 
Conrad died in 1924, and Léger's career was
established by 1910, so the window of opportunity for
their meeting probably falls between 1910 and 1924.  I
wonder whether Conrad's and Léger's encounters with
Melville pre-date the American Melville revival.





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