History & Criticism
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Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography
A double portrait of two of America's most influential writers that reveals the surprising connections between them―and their uncanny relevance to our age of crisis
Up from the Depths tells the interconnected stories of two of the most important writers in American history―the novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819–1891) and one of his earliest biographers, the literary critic and historian Lewis Mumford (1895–1990). Deftly cutting back and forth between the writers, Aaron Sachs reveals the surprising resonances between their lives, work, and troubled times―and their uncanny relevance in our own age of crisis.
The author of Moby-Dick was largely forgotten for several decades after his death, but Mumford helped spearhead Melville's revival in the aftermath of World War I and the 1918–1919 flu pandemic, when American culture needed a forebear with a suitably dark vision. As Mumford's career took off and he wrote books responding to the machine age, urban decay, world war, and environmental degradation, it was looking back to Melville's confrontation with crises such as industrialization, slavery, and the Civil War that helped Mumford to see his own era clearly. Mumford remained obsessed with Melville, ultimately helping to canonize him as America's greatest tragedian. But largely forgotten today is one of Mumford's key insights―that Melville's darkness was balanced by an inspiring determination to endure.
Amid today's foreboding over global warming, racism, technology, pandemics, and other crises, Melville and Mumford remind us that we've been in this struggle for a long time. To rediscover these writers today is to rediscover how history can offer hope in dark times.
A double portrait of two of America's most influential writers that reveals the surprising connections between them―and their uncanny relevance to our age of crisis
Up from the Depths tells the interconnected stories of two of the most important writers in American history―the novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819–1891) and one of his earliest biographers, the literary critic and historian Lewis Mumford (1895–1990). Deftly cutting back and forth between the writers, Aaron Sachs reveals the surprising resonances between their lives, work, and troubled times―and their uncanny relevance in our own age of crisis.
The author of Moby-Dick was largely forgotten for several decades after his death, but Mumford helped spearhead Melville's revival in the aftermath of World War I and the 1918–1919 flu pandemic, when American culture needed a forebear with a suitably dark vision. As Mumford's career took off and he wrote books responding to the machine age, urban decay, world war, and environmental degradation, it was looking back to Melville's confrontation with crises such as industrialization, slavery, and the Civil War that helped Mumford to see his own era clearly. Mumford remained obsessed with Melville, ultimately helping to canonize him as America's greatest tragedian. But largely forgotten today is one of Mumford's key insights―that Melville's darkness was balanced by an inspiring determination to endure.
Amid today's foreboding over global warming, racism, technology, pandemics, and other crises, Melville and Mumford remind us that we've been in this struggle for a long time. To rediscover these writers today is to rediscover how history can offer hope in dark times.
Editorial Reviews
"Up from the Depths is a beautifully written, wise, and original book. Aaron Sachs's account of Lewis Mumford's decades-long engagement with Herman Melville's work invites us to think anew about why we are drawn to certain forebears as our intellectual companions on life's journey. The book is also a passionate plea that we confront our current ecological crisis with the same urgency Mumford and Melville brought to the modern terrors of their times."―Casey Nelson Blake, coauthor of At the Center: American Thought and Culture in the Mid-Twentieth Century
"In this immensely thoughtful book, Aaron Sachs explores the shared uncertainty of Herman Melville and Lewis Mumford―two brilliant writers who were not always sure where to direct their energies in their uncertain times. But this is a book for our time and for anyone who is seeking direction by reflecting on the past."―John Kaag, author of Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life
"Aaron Sachs's intellectual biography of Melville and Mumford is an inspired work, both in conception and execution. Magnificently written, Up from the Depths will move readers with Sachs's empathetic channeling of Melville's and Mumford's meditations on the nature and meaning of history."―Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, author of The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History
"Sachs has done what the best intellectual and literary historians have done: provide us with the resources we need from past thinkers to face the future with hope, if not optimism."―Robert Westbrook, author of Democratic Hope: Pragmatism and the Politics of Truth
"In this immensely thoughtful book, Aaron Sachs explores the shared uncertainty of Herman Melville and Lewis Mumford―two brilliant writers who were not always sure where to direct their energies in their uncertain times. But this is a book for our time and for anyone who is seeking direction by reflecting on the past."―John Kaag, author of Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life
"Aaron Sachs's intellectual biography of Melville and Mumford is an inspired work, both in conception and execution. Magnificently written, Up from the Depths will move readers with Sachs's empathetic channeling of Melville's and Mumford's meditations on the nature and meaning of history."―Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, author of The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History
"Sachs has done what the best intellectual and literary historians have done: provide us with the resources we need from past thinkers to face the future with hope, if not optimism."―Robert Westbrook, author of Democratic Hope: Pragmatism and the Politics of Truth
Readers Top Reviews
George Cotkin
Up from the Depths is an exciting book, a journey into the minds and lives of Herman Melville and Lewis Mumford. Mumford not only wrote one of the first biographies of Melville, but continuously pondered his writings. Both of them shared a tragic sense of life, but one that refused passivity. Instead, they admired endurance, a willingness to recognize that however difficult change might be, it was necessary to struggle with moderation and self-consciousness. Sachs’ writing is clear and compelling, with a fine eye for the winning quote. He does much more than establish connections between these two writers; he digs deeply into their ideas, weighing them and, carefully demonstrating why they remain meaningful for our time. Even though I have spent many years reading and writing about Melville, Sachs revealed much that was unfamiliar to me; his interpretations were subtle and accessible. And he has rescued Mumford from relative obscurity and shown the variety and force of his thoughts. In addition to his careful analysis of their writings, Sachs evocatively peels away obscurities that have hidden their personal lives while showing that, to a degree, much will of necessity evade any biographer. Anyone with even a passing interest in Melville will be well-served by this book and everyone will benefit greatly about learning about Mumford, a fascinating and difficult man, whose monomania sometimes resembled that of Melville. The most important uptake from this lively book is that while we will never have all the answers to questions that confound us today, we can at least, thanks to Melville, Mumford, and Sachs, think about them in a better manner. No small accomplishment!
robin friedman
Aaron Sachs tells "the story of two modern wanderers, convinced of their aloneness but still looking for connection" in his new dual biography "Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times" (2022). Sachs, Professor of history and American studies at Cornell University, has the goal of rediscovering Melville's and Mumford's "capacity for realism, connection, and orientation, amid modernity's ongoing traumas." He succeeds admirably. Some background may be useful. Herman Melville (1819 -- 1891) is best-known as the author of "Moby-Dick", but he wrote many other novels and also wrote poetry. At the time of his death, Melville was almost forgotten, and most of his books were out-of-print. Lewis Mumford (1895 -- 1990) was a polymath and a generalist. He was a literary critic, student of the city and of urban planning, and a critic of the impact of technology and unrestrained economic activity on American life. Mumford's best known work is "The Renewal of Life" which consists of four large volumes written between 1934 and 1951. Most of Mumford's many books are currently out-of-print. Relatively early in has career, Mumford wrote on American literature. In 1929 he wrote a biography, "Herman Melville". His book was only the second biography of Melville, following a biography in 1921 by Raymond Weaver. Mumford's book contributed greatly to the revival of interest in Melville among both readers and scholars, and it helped secure Melville's rightful place among great American writers. Mumford continued his engagement with Melville throughout his career, using him often as an inspiration for his own work. Sachs's book moves in successive chapters between the life and work of Melville and that of Mumford with the aim both of showing common themes and also showing how the work of both writers remains important. With its broad scope, I found the book most interesting in its detail in its description of the work of Melville, which I have long loved, and in the work of Mumford, which, I knew slightly. His chapters cross back and forth between the two authors, with references to many other figures. He wants to show how both Melville and Mumford wrote about the difficulties and tragic nature of modernity -- a highly elusive concept. Melville wrote against the background of the Civil War while Mumford wrote against the background of both World Wars, the 1918 flu pandemic, and the Depression. Both writers had a strong sense of pessimism and of tragedy and yet both over the course of their long lives were able to use their understanding of history and of their own experiences to come to a sense of hope. The discussion of Melville focuses on "Moby-Dick", "Bartelby", and "Billy Budd". It also includes his lesser-known works, including, the poetry he wrote late in life, such as "Battle-Pieces" and "Clar...
Joe Vitale
This is a rare book - well written, engaging, educational, personal, while still illuminating forgotten giants of literature. I felt I knew all involved, from the subjects to the author. I loved it.
