17 Facts About Raymond Weaver

Raymond Weaver published a novel, wrote introductions for editions of American fiction, book reviews, and literary essays, but never published another scholarly book after his book on Melville.

In 1909 when Raymond Weaver was an undergraduate, he came across Melville's first book, Typee, but "stopped at the beginning," as he later wrote, and did not return to Melville for another decade.

Raymond Weaver returned to become a graduate student at Columbia University, where his initial interest was in the literature of the Renaissance.

Raymond Weaver first taught at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, then was hired by Columbia to replace a socialist professor who had been fired because of his peace activities.

Raymond Weaver left to teach again at Brooklyn Polytechnic, only to return to Columbia for good in 1922.

Raymond Weaver characterized Melville's work after 1851 as inferior, sometimes even unacceptable.

In 1924 Raymond Weaver published Melville's Billy Budd, whose manuscript he had found in 1919.

Raymond Weaver continued to teach Dante and Renaissance literature in addition to the General Honors course.

One story recounted decades later was that Raymond Weaver was at a cocktail party in the late 1930s when a guest asked him if he had read Gone With the Wind.

Raymond Weaver freely gave advice to Charles Olson in preparing his study, Call Me Ishmael, published in 1947, but declined to read the manuscript that Olson submitted for publication.

Raymond Weaver was given tenure in 1937, but since he never completed his PhD, he was not promoted to full professor until 1946.

Raymond Weaver died in his apartment near Columbia University in New York City, on the morning of April 4,1948, at the age of 59.

Raymond Weaver had recently been treated at a New York hospital, apparently for suicidal depression.

Raymond Weaver told Campbell in the 1920s that he should not continue PhD work because he would not find what he was looking for in graduate school, but gave him a list of readings.

Raymond Weaver related every moment of the classroom to life, and his vision of life was heroic.

Ginsberg, who was uncomfortable in the homophobic atmosphere at Columbia, recalled that Raymond Weaver was gay, and Kerouac recalled that Raymond Weaver gave him a list of books on Zen Buddhism, Plotinus, Melville's novel Pierre, and the American Transcendentalists.

The scholars who came after him credit Raymond Weaver with writing the first biography of Melville and launching the Melville Revival, but point out weaknesses in interpretation and misstatements which came from lack of information.