<P>First published in 1947, this acknowledged classic of American literary criticism explores the influences—especially Shakespearean ones—on Melville's writing of <I>Moby-Dick</I>. One of the first Melvilleans to advance what has since become known as the "theory of the two <I>Moby-Dicks</I>," Olson argues that there were two versions of <I>Moby-Dick</I>, and that Melville's reading <I>King Lear</I> for the first time in between the first and second versions of the book had a profound impact on his conception of the saga: "the first book did not contain Ahab," writes Olson, and "it may not, except incidentally, have contained Moby-Dick." If literary critics and reviewers at the time responded with varying degrees of skepticism to the "theory of the two <I>Moby-Dick</I>s," it was the experimental style and organization of the book that generated the most controversy. </P>