Contents
Herman Melville
Writing Moby-Dick and its obsessive hunt for a white whale.
Billy Budd · Bartleby, the Scrivener
- Born
- 1 August 1819
- Birthplace
- New York City, United States
- Died
- 28 September 1891
More people
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American writer whose years at sea supplied material for fiction about labour, authority and the unknown. His reputation revived long after the commercial disappointment of his most ambitious novel.
Early life
Family reversal
His merchant father’s death left the family in financial difficulty.
Early employment
Worked in several jobs before going to sea as a young man.
Career
- 1839–1844
Sailor
Travelled on merchant, whaling and naval vessels, spending time in the Pacific.
- 1846–1850
Early literary success
Published sea narratives that established him as an author.
- 1850s
Ambitious fiction
Wrote increasingly experimental work, with uneven sales.
- 1866–1885
Customs employment
Worked as a New York customs inspector while continuing to write.
Selected work
Typee
A fictionalised account drew on his stay in the Marquesas Islands.
Moby-Dick
A whaling voyage becomes an expansive investigation of obsession and knowledge.
Bartleby, the Scrivener
A clerk’s refusal to comply unsettles a Wall Street office.
Beyond work
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Their friendship helped stimulate his writing during the Moby-Dick period.
Poetry
Later work included Civil War poems and the long verse narrative Clarel.
Sources & photo credit
Biography ↗Life and work ↗Photo: Joseph Oriel Eaton. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
