RIP Hershel Parker (1935-2026)
Hershel Parker's wife wrote on his Facebook page that he died on June 19, 2026 at the age of 90. I haven't seen an obituary posted yet but I'll keep my eyes open.
Parker, of course, was co-editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Moby-Dick, the general editor of all the Northwestern-Newberry editions of Melville's complete works, the author of the seminal two-volume biography of Melville (and a companion memoir of writing the biography), a blog he kept for more than a decade, and countless other articles and contributions to Melville studies.
I had a few very limited email exchanges with Parker in the last few years, asking him questions related to my own blog and was grateful to get even a quick response pointing me in one direction or another.
So pour one out for Hershel Parker, poor devil of a Sub-Sub!
> So fare thee well, poor devil of a Sub-Sub, whose commentator I am. Thou belongest to that hopeless, sallow tribe which no wine of this world will ever warm; and for whom even Pale Sherry would be too rosy-strong; but with whom one sometimes loves to sit, and feel poor-devilish, too; and grow convivial upon tears; and say to them bluntly, with full eyes and empty glasses, and in not altogether unpleasant sadness—Give it up, Sub-Subs! For by how much the more pains ye take to please the world, by so much the more shall ye for ever go thankless! Would that I could clear out Hampton Court and the Tuileries for ye! But gulp down your tears and hie aloft to the royal-mast with your hearts; for your friends who have gone before are clearing out the seven-storied heavens, and making refugees of long-pampered Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, against your coming. Here ye strike but splintered hearts together—there, ye shall strike unsplinterable glasses!