Weeping with an Ancient God

General Fiction

By Ted Morrissey

Publisher : Twelve Winters Press

Weeping with an Ancient God

ABOUT Ted Morrissey

Ted Morrissey
I'm the author of the novels An Untimely Frost and Men of Winter and the novelette Figures in Blue, all from Twelve Winters Press. My fiction has appeared in numerous journals, including Glimmer Train Stories, The Chariton Review, PANK, and Pisgah Review. A Ph.D. in English studies, I've  More...

Description

Weeping with an Ancient God is a novella set in the Marquesas Islands in the summer of 1842. Melvill, the protagonist, has jumped ship from the whaler Acushnet into a wild, savage and exotically beautiful land. Melvill contemplates his dangerous present, his sad past and his uncertain future on an island teeming with cannibals.The novella is based on the real-life adventure of author Herman Melville when he was a young seaman. The print version of the book includes illustrations by Adam G. Perschbacher and an interview by Beth Gilstrap.

When author Herman Melville (Moby-Dick) was a young seaman, he had a real-life adventure living among cannibals after jumping ship in the Marquesas Islands. It was the basis for his own fictional treatment of the episode in Typee. I thought that it would be interesting to do a fictionalized biographical account of Melville's story.