* This product is not available for expedited shipping.

The authoritative edition of Melville's only historical novel

Based on the life of an actual soldier who claimed to have fought at Bunker Hill, Israel Potter is unique among Herman Melville's books: a novel in the guise of a biography. In telling the story of Israel Potter's fall from Revolutionary War hero to peddler on the streets of London, where he obtained a livelihood by crying "Old Chairs to Mend," Melville alternated between invented scenes and historical episodes, granting cameos to such famous men of the era as Benjamin Franklin (Potter may have been his secret courier) and John Paul Jones, and providing a portrait of the American Revolution as the rollicking adventure and violent series of events that it really was.

This edition of Israel Potter, which reproduces the definitive text, includes selections from Potter's autobiography, Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter, the basis for Melville's novel.

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was born in New York and began writing after joining the whaler Acushnet bound for the Pacific. Books based on his adventures, including Moby-Dick, won him immediate acclaim; however, he died virtually forgotten.
Robert S. Levine is a professor of English at the University of Maryland.

http://www.christianbook.com/israel-potter-herman-melville/9780143105237/pd/105237

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product_review

__USERID__

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/ask_and_answer

Availability: Usually ships in 24-48 hours.

• Books >> Fiction >> Classic Fiction
• Fiction >> Classic Fiction
• Start A New Christianbook.com Search

I'm the author/artist and I want to review Israel Potter.