English Department Faculty Lecture Series (Inaugural Lecture)

Presents

Dr. Mary Edwards

Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut

President of the Melville Society (2004)

April 9 (Wednesday) from 3:00 to 4:00 pm

Alumni Hall.

Dr. Edwards is a well-known Melville expert. She served as the president of the Melville Society in 2004 and is currently an Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point Campus. Dr. Edwards has published several books and articles on Melville including Melville’s Sources (1987) and Herman Melville’s Whaling Years (2004). She has recently returned from the South Pacific where she was researching for her new book on Melville and his early novels.

On April 9, Dr. Edwards will discuss the oral and spoken sources of Herman Melville’s work. The lecture will include an examination of what she calls sailor talk, cannibal talk, and missionary talk in Melville’s novels as well as a brief investigation into the author’s actual whereabouts when he was writing Typee. The lecture will be followed by a reception (4:00-5:00 pm).