Clarel ─ A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land

Melville’s long poem Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876) was the last full-length book he published. Until the mid-twentieth century even the most partisan of Melville’s advocates hesitated to endure a four-part poem of 150 cantos and almost 18,000 lines about a naive American named Clarel, on pilgrimage through the Palestinian ruins with a provocative cluster of companions.

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Herman Melville (1819?91) was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and essayist. Melville toiled at various times as a sailor, banker, teacher and finally as a customs inspector. His novels include Typee, Omoo, and White Jacket, all published in authoritative editions by Northwestern University Press. He died in relative obscurity at the age of 72.

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Hershel Parker, H. Fletcher Brown Professor Emeritus at the University of Delaware, General Editor of the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of the writings of Herman Melville. His publications include Flawed Texts and Verbal Icons, Reading "Billy Budd,” and the 1995 edition of Melville's Pierre, or, The Ambiguities, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. He is also the author of Herman Melville: A Biography, 1819?1851 and Herman Melville: A Biography, 1851?1891, the first volume a Pulitzer finalist and each the winner of?the?highest award from the Association of American Publishers' Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division.