Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In

> First edition paperback published by author. Solid binding. Some wear along edges and a little sunfading to spine. Small 1" long crease on front cover. Spine has reading crease. Clean interior pages free of any markings. 203 pages. 6.5" X 4" X 0.3" In his seminal work of literary and cultural criticism, Mariners, Renegades and Castaways, James anticipated many of the concerns and ideas that have shaped the contemporary fields of
American and Postcolonial Studies. A provocative study of Moby Dick in which James challenged the prevailing Americanist interpretation that opposed a "totalitarian" Ahab and a "democratic, American" Ishmael, he offered instead a vision of a factory-like Pequod whose "captain of industry" leads the "mariners, renegades and castaways" of its crew to their doom. In addition to demonstrating how such an interpretation supported the emerging US national security state, James also related the narrative of Moby Dick, and its resonance in American literary and political culture, to his own persecuted position at the height (or the depth) of the Truman/McCarthy era. James wrote this book while being detained at the immigration station on Ellis Island. He had copies of the privately published work sent to every member of the Senate in attempt to avoid deportation to Britain. C.L.R. James also wrote under the name Cyril Lionel Robert James and J. R. Johnson.