List $126.98

Written by Herman Melville - Audio book performed by Williams Hootkins - Unabridged Fiction - 19 COMPACT DISCS - 24 hours

Publisher, Naxos Audiobooks (September 2005)

‘Call me Ishmael’. Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write ‘a mighty book about a mighty theme’ and so he did. It is a story of one man’s obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.

This epic story, here presented in unabridged form, receives an equally epic reading from the outstanding American actor William Hootkins.

About the Performer: Moby-Dick, one of the most challenging books to read in the whole canon of Western literature, was recorded by William Hootkins for Naxos AudioBooks in eight days over a two week period in the modern London studios of the RNIB. It was, according to producer Nicolas Soames, a remarkable time for all concerned. All the more poignant as, shortly after, tragedy struck.

William Hootkins has a lovely home overlooking the sea in Los Angeles. He spent much of 2004 in London receiving plaudits for his unforgettable portrayal of Alfred Hitchcock himself in the West End hit Hitchcock Blonde. It was a challenging role, not least because Bill (as he is affectionately known throughout the acting world) is not English as Hitchcock, but Texan-born – and proud of it. Yet he spent a lot of time ensuring that the accent he adopted for the greatest English director of suspense films reflected his lower-class origins and upper class schooling. It was a feature of the stage production that brought widespread praise from press and audiences alike and it was no surprise. For Bill is one of the most experienced vocal actors of our time.

So, if any American actor can approach the massive complexity of Melville’s Moby-Dick, with its array of varying characters, it is William Hootkins who in addition to his talent brings to the microphone a magnificently burnished vocal sound. In short – he is a big man with a big voice.

He had already recorded an abridged version for Penguin Books a decade or so ago, and that recording made it quite clear that he was the first choice for the unabridged version. We discussed it for six or nine months – the time, the place. And eventually we agreed two weeks in December 2004, slipping in the recording of Hiawatha unabridged as a warm-up! Bill, it was clear, is a man of gargantuan energy.

The day on Hiawatha gave myself and engineer Clare Winter a taste of what was to come. But only a taste. For before we even started on Moby-Dick it was clear that Bill had gone to extraordinary lengths to prepare for it.

As his friend, Larry Strichman pointed out, Bill had lived with the book virtually all his life. It is one of the touchstones of American literature and, like most high school kids (‘who adjust the title to read Moby’s Dick’) Bill read it as a teenager. Unlike most, he read it from cover to cover. When he was in Princeton University he starred in a production of Moby Dick Rehearsed about a 19th century acting troupe doing a production of Moby-Dick. Bill played the director AND Captain Ahab.

Since then, the book has never been far away from his attention and has surfaced in his acting career from time to time – whether doing the abridged audiobook reading or voicing the character of Starbuck in a film cartoon.

After a day of Hiawatha, we knew Bill’s routine. He settled down in his chair, adjusted his script and his reading light. Beside him was a jug of water, a glass (already filled) and a full bottle of Tabasco sauce – a dangerous and potent tincture. ‘It keeps the airways clear,’ he explained. He had run out during Hiawatha and we made sure there was a full bottle for Moby-Dick. He put in enough drops in his glass of water to make my eyes smart on the other side of the studio glass, but he seemed satisfied.

He then went into his routine – two clear and perfect enunciations of a Shakespeare speech which he used to ensure he was vocally in tip-top form. And then he began.

‘Call me Ishmael..’ rolled into the microphone. We (engineer Clare and myself) sat upright. From that famous opening line, marking the character of the narrator as a biblical outcast with a sense of humour, Bill set the tone. Despite his immense reverence for the book, this was not going to be a reverential interpretation. This Ishmael needed to break away from time to time from the schoolroom and live a harder, rougher life on the high seas. Already we were in a different world – the world of the whaling ships of the 19th century.

For three days, we recorded. Then we had a couple of days’ break. Then another three days. Then two days. Bill recorded from 10am to 1pm, sometimes breaking for a cup of coffee. Then lunch. Then from 2pm to 5pm. And off he would go into the centre of London – to dine with friends, to go to the theatre? Rarely. Mainly, he went back to study further for the following day, looking both at the text and at a collection of critical analyses.

And, after two weeks, it was finished. We had all loved every moment of it. The heights were those extraordinary moments when Melville’s insights into personalities and situations were made all the more potent by the Biblical or Shakespearean language that he employed. There were the reflections by Stubb, the dignity and humanity of Queequeg, and of course the magnificent obsession of Ahab.

And there were the long passages, sometimes poetic, sometimes scientific or encyclopaedic accounts of the whale, its habits, it environs, its size and its fate at the hand of the whalers. Here Bill came into his own – he has always been as interested in science as in the arts, and he remained fascinated by Melville’s inclusion of a mass of whale information in this remarkable novel.

We finished. We celebrated with a meal at the traditional Hungarian restaurant, The Gay Hussar in London’s Soho with another actor with a large voice – the Welshman Philip Madoc (old friends since appearing in a production together).

And then Bill was back off to his home in Los Angeles.

Two weeks later, not feeling well, he went for a check-up. He was told he had pancreatic cancer, a particularly virulent form. With typical brouhaha, he went on a holiday to Death Valley – a photograph of him in the burning heat wearing a Death Valley T-Shirt is a prized possession among his friends.

Within a month, he had a stroke and lost most of his speech.

And since, he has bravely combated the illness. Living as well and as actively as he can and trying to regain his speech.

This recording of Moby-Dick – his last and his greatest – shows an exceptional reader at the height of his powers.