Herman Melville

Lore & Background

Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to the sea in 1839 as a cabin boy on the merchant ship St. Lawrence and then in 1841, on the whaler Acushnet. However, he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance adventure and his third book, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.

Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York City in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector. From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at the time of his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.

Reader's Guide

Herman Melville's significance lies in his literary output during the American Renaissance, particularly his novel Moby-Dick, which eventually became considered one of the Great American Novels. Despite this later acclaim, Melville was not well known to the public at the time of his death. His early travel adventures Typee and Omoo provided financial security, but his more ambitious works such as Mardi, Moby-Dick, and Pierre were not well received by audiences or critics. After publishing short fiction and his last prose work The Confidence-Man, Melville turned to poetry, producing Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War and the metaphysical epic Clarel. His legacy was revived starting with the centennial of his birth in 1919, and his posthumously published novella Billy Budd further cemented his reputation. Melville's life as a sailor, his family's financial struggles, and his personal tragedies informed much of his writing.

Did You Know?

• Melville was baptized at home by a minister of the South Reformed Dutch Church on August 19, 1819, just over two and a half weeks after his birth.
• He jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands while serving on the whaler Acushnet in 1841.
• His eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot in 1867.
• Melville's last work of prose was The Confidence-Man, published in 1857.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Herman Melville (1 August 1819 – 28 September 1891) was an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period." — Herman Melville "Now, there is a something about every man elevated above mediocrity, which is for the most part instinctively perceptible." — Herman Melville "Now, there is a something about every man elevated above mediocrity, which is for the most part instantly perceptible." — Herman Melville "Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne (June 1, 1851)." — Herman Melville