Fiction. "Pelton's modern cover of this great 1853 American novella makes the mind toggle from Pelton to Melville and back. In the middle of this read a moving personal digression honors the universality of the iconic Melville story. Ah humanity! You speculate about Bartleby the Waitress, Bartleby the Bus Driver, Bartleby the ticket seller, and you burrow into the lonely faceless steeps of American night. This is a wonderful homage, humane and readable, an engrossing take on an oracular Melville work"--Steve Katz.
Author Hometown: BUFFALO, NY USA
About the author: Ted Pelton is the author of the novel MALCOLM & JACK (Spuyten Duyvil, 2006), a collection of short fiction, ENDORSED BY JACK CHAPEAU 2 AN EVEN GREATER EXTENT (Starcherone Press, 2006) and two novellas, Bhang (BlazeVOX Books, 2006) and BARTLEBY, THE SPORTSCASTER (Subito Press, 2010). A 1994 winner of an NEA fellowship, he is currently a full professor at Medaille College in Buffalo, New York. He founded and runs Starcherone Press.
"Ted Pelton has written an allegory about an allegory about real life. The memoir of the end of his first marriage, sandwiched between chapters about a fictional sportscaster and his silent colleague, Bartleby, offers us a sober frame for interpreting the fiction (his and Melville's). More importantly, perhaps, fiction gives us access to the life. Bartleby is real; marriage is allegory. Vice versa, too. Neither life nor art can be imitated in Pelton's novel, for they are one and the same. For an avowed Mets fan, Pelton's a pretty savvy writer."
—Susan M. Schultz
"BARTLEBY, THE SPORTSCASTER is animated by an uncanny spirit, a profoundly original tenderness. Ted Pelton is a master poet."
—Joseph Lease