The Literature Network - Herman Melville, Matthew Perry, and the narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the china seas and Japan.

Herman Melville, Matthew Perry, and the narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the china seas and Japan.

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From: Leviathan
Date: 20061001
Author:Kleitz, Dorsey

On his return journey from Japan to the United States in 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry visited Nathaniel Hawthorne in Liverpool to invite him to edit the official United States government account of the expedition of "black ships" that opened Japan to the West. In declining the offer, Hawthorne recommended Herman Melville for the job, a suggestion Perry quickly dismissed. I would like to use Perry's reaction to Hawthorne's recommendation as the starting point for a review of Melville-Perry connections and to examine the account of the Japan expedition as it finally appeared in the ...

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