Bartelby, The Sportscaster

by Ted Pelton

published 2010 | fiction

Excerpt:

I guess I’m not in an awful darn hurry. Partly, I wonder what’s the point. Why do I want to find Bartleby? I’ve never done him any good, nor he me, when you think about it. I don’t know what I’ll say to him if I do find him. I’ll probably tell him I was sorry, though I’m not sure for what. Or maybe I’ll get to Texas and it’ll be some other guy, named Elbee or Elber. I’ll sit down and talk to him if he’s willing, having come all that way. I’ve never talked to a murderer. It might be interesting. At my age, what have I got to lose?

Reviews and Interviews:

“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

A list of reviews and interviews.

About the Author:

Ted Pelton is the author of four books of fiction: Endorsed by Jack Chapeau, a short story collection; Bhang, a novella; Malcolm and Jack (and other Famous American Criminals), a novel; and most recently, Bartleby, the Sportscaster, a novella. He has received Individual Fellowships for Fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and from the Isherwood Foundation. He has a PhD in English from University at Buffalo and an MA in Creative Writing from Colorado University, Boulder. Currently, he is Chair of Humanities at Medaille College of Buffalo, NY, and Director of Starcherone Books, a nonprofit innovative fiction press he founded in 2000.