Hayford, Harrison

Harrison Mosher Hayford (b. Belfast, Maine 1 November 1916 - d. 10 December 2001 Evanston, Illinois) was a scholar of American literature, most prominently of Herman Melville, a book-collector, and a textual editor. He taught at Northwestern University from 1942 until his retirement in 1986. He was a leading figure in the post-World War II generation of Melville scholars who mounted the Melville Revival. He was General Editor of the Northwestern-Newberry The Writings of Herman Melville published by Northwestern University Press, which established reliable texts for all of Melville's works by using techniques of textual criticism. G. Thomas Tanselle surveyed the scholarship about Herman Melville over the twentieth century and concluded that "Harrison Hayford has been responsible for more basic work —from the maintenance of a file of secondary material to the production of critical editions—than anyone else” . Hayford received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1951; a Fulbright Fellowship in 1956-1957, which he spent in Florence, Italy; a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962, which he spent in Paris, France. He helped found and served four terms as president of the Melville Society.