The Importance of Being Frank

"my fine frank friend, poor Mark..." (Mardi)

 "Thank you for your frankness," said Paul; "frank myself, I love to deal with a frank man." (Israel Potter)

"What a madness & anguish it is, that an author can never – under no conceivable circumstances – be at all frank with his readers.  Could I, for one, be frank with them – how they would cease their railing." 
--Melville's Letter to Evert Duyckinck (14 December 1849)

By-the-way, though but a formality, friends should know each other's names. What is yours, pray? 

"Francis Goodman. But those who love me call me Frank." (Confidence-Man)

In "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" (1851-1853) the narrator's talkative traveling partner evolves from "Imaginary Friend" (called I. F. for short) to "Frank."  The idealized Imaginary Friend first receives a name in the August 1852 number of the Southern Literary Messenger:

 "But here comes Frank again: well, rest is evidently not a time for dull narrative." 

F.   Most industrious of scribblers, I give you good evening!

 --Scenes Beyond the Western Border, August 1852

A practical man and a realist, Frank usually gives the utilitarian view on any subject.  On the subjects of poetry and fiction, his pronouncements echo those of Herman Melville's critical friend Evert A. Duyckinck.

"But I have been writing, Frank, something for your especial approval..."
 --Scenes Beyond the Western Border, August 1853

Frank is not Frank anymore in the 1857 book version, Scenes and Adventures in the Army. In the book, Frank is identified only as "Friend."