Biography
John Bryant received his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1975 and is Professor Emeritus of English at Hofstra University. He is founding editor of Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies and founding director of the Melville Electronic Library (MEL). His books include Melville and Repose (Oxford 1993), The Fluid Text (Michigan 2002), and Melville Unfolding (Michigan 2008). In addition to ninety articles on Melville, 19th-C American literature, and textual studies, Bryant has edited several editions of Melville’s works, including Typee (Penguin), The Confidence-Man (Random House), Melville’s Tales, Poems, and Other Writings (Modern Library), the Longman Critical Edition of Moby-Dick, and Barry Moser’s illustrated Billy Budd (Chicago). Bryant currently resides in Hyde Park where he is completing the last of his 3-volume biography, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life (vols. 1 & 2; Wiley Blackwell).