I am happy to report that The Prosthetic Arts of Moby-Dick is now published and will hopefully soon be coming to a library near you. No one is expecting individuals to
purchase this hardcover volume, though if you would like Oxford University Press to publish a paperback, please visit the book’s website. (The press is going to use web traffic to help determine if a paperback is warranted, so I would appreciate your visiting the site when you can.)
As I explain in the Acknowledgements, this book is especially personal to me as a teacher: “For nearly forty years my favorite author to teach has been Herman Melville, for his work means so much to so many. I have taught Melville’s works to boarding school students, to military cadets, to executives in an MBA program, to neighbors in community book clubs, and to high school teachers under the auspices of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. I have taught many generations of students at The College of New Jersey—some of whom have married each other, some of whom have gotten whale tattoos, and some of whom have gone on to teach Moby-Dick themselves. All of them have taught me something important about Ishmael’s “mighty book.” I gratefully dedicate this study to them. As always, friends, We try all things; we achieve what we can.”