Oh reader! I write not to be read, and I swear never even to transcribe for your benefit unless I change my mind. All I want is a good listener; I want to converse with you; and if you are absolutely dumb, why I will sometimes answer for you. Link below to Volume 17 via Google Books with the above-quoted intro on page Melvilliana is a reader-supported publication.
To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. George Cooke. In February the first of four western sketches entitled Leaves from my Note-Book appeared in the Army and Navy Chronicle over the signature of "Z.
A couple of Indian romances and the racy tale of Hugh Glass filled out the series in the Southern Literary Messenger. These interpolated sketches originated in the St.
The alluring subtitle of the book version represents the collection of these entertaining but episodic accounts, all previously published in magazines and newspapers, as a generically unified Romance of Military Life. While perfectly suited to a group of miscellaneous sketches, the Fragments tag might have discouraged a potential reader looking for coherence in a serious work of military autobiography.
Nevertheless, the first and arguably more accurate label for the travel narratives, military adventures, Indian romances, and philosophical prairie dialogues cobbled together in the book version of Scenes and Adventures in the Army was Fragments.
