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Raymond Melbourne Weaver (1888 in Baltimore, Maryland - April 4, 1948 in New York City) was a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University in 1916-1948, and a literary scholar best known for publishing the first full biography of American author Herman Melville (1819-1891) in 1921 and editing Melville's works. Weaver's scholarly credentials, training, and persuasiveness were important in launching the "Melville Revival" of the 1920s that brought Melville from obscurity to wide recognition. Weaver was an influential teacher. He published a novel, wrote introductions for editions of American fiction, book reviews, and literary essays, but never published another scholarly book. ==Discovery of Melville== In 1909 when Weaver was an undergraduate, he came across Melville's first book, Typee, but "stopped at the beginning," as he later wrote, and did not return to Melville for another decade. He graduated from Columbia Teachers College in 1910. In pursuit of teaching, he went to Japan, where he taught English in Hiroshima, and started his career as a writer by publishing articles of travel and reporting. He returned to become a graduate student at Columbia University, where his initial interest was in the literature of the Renaissance. Weaver first taught at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, then was hired by Columbia to replace a socialist professor who had been fired because of his peace activities (Weaver left to teach again at Brooklyn Polytechnic, only to return to Columbia for good in 1922). Carl Van Doren, then an editor of the ''The Nation'' magazine, had discovered the works of Melville and was impressed by Weaver's "ability to deal with a speculative subject." When they were seated side-by-side at a faculty dinner, Van Doren commissioned Weaver to write an article for ''The Nation'' to mark the centennial of Melville's birth in November, 1919. Weaver at first thought the project would be "child's play" and "a day's job," but when he went to the library, he was surprised to find that while there were many works ''by ''Melville there was almost nothing ''about '' him. Weaver's article for ''The Nation'' said that ''Moby-Dick'' was “born in hell-fire, and baptized in an unspeakable name” and that it “reads like a great opium dream,” but contains “some of the most finished comedy in the language.” Preparing that article led to a realization that a biography was needed, and his decision to fill that gap made Weaver the key player in the "Melville revival" which had been gathering momentum. At Van Doren's urging, he launched into deeper research. In particular, he won the confidence of Melville's granddaughter, Eleanor Metcalf, who had inherited the Melville family papers and documents. Weaver's most important discovery among these papers was the unfinished manuscript for ''Billy Budd'' on which Melville had been working at the time of his death in 1891. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Raymond Weaver」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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