
The Divine Magnet
These letters are full of passion humor doubt and spiritual yearning and offer an intimate view of Melville's personality. Lyrical and effusive they are literary works in themselves. This correspondence has been out of print for decades and even when it was in print it appeared in scholarly volumes of Melville's complete correspondence aimed at the academy. The Divine Magnet will provide the general literary public as well as the college classroom with a reliable and beautifully produced volume of Melville's letters to Hawthorne along with supplemental material highlighting the relationship between these luminaries of American letters. Paul Harding (Foreword) Mark Niemeyer (Editor / Author of Introduction)Review(s)"Here is Melville at his most inspired and numinous every perfervid yet finely honed paragraph is a philosophy recalling Shelley's essays. [...] Niemeyer's probing and nuanced introduction dissects the controversies over Melville's feelings toward Hawthorne and sit