Herman Melville
1 book analyzed
Biography
Herman Melville (1819–1891) was a man who lived what he wrote and was punished for writing it. Born into a respectable New York family that collapsed into poverty after his father's death and bankruptcy, Melville went to sea at nineteen. He sailed on a merchant ship, then signed on to the whaleship Acushnet in 1841. He deserted in the Marquesas Islands, lived among the Typee people for a month (material for his first novel), spent time on other ships, participated in a mutiny, and eventually returned to America in 1844. He wrote six novels in quick succession, the first two (Typee and Omoo) selling well because they were adventure stories. Moby-Dick (1851) was a critical and commercial catastrophe. Reviewers were baffled by its length, its philosophy, its refusal to be one kind of book. Pierre (1852) was even worse. Melville spent thirty years as a customs inspector in New York, nearly forgotten. He died in 1891; his obituary misspelled his name. A 1921 centenary revival — led by scholars who found his work astonishing — slowly rebuilt his reputation. He is now considered one of the greatest American writers. He did not know this.