Herman Melville
| Herman Melville | |
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Herman Melville, 1870. Oil painting by Joseph Oriel Eaton.
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| Born | Herman Melvill August 1, 1819 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | September 28, 1891 (aged 72) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, teacher, sailor, lecturer, poet, customs inspector |
| Genre | Travelogue, Captivity narrative, Sea story, Gothic Romanticism, Allegory, Tall tale |
| Literary movement | Romanticism |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Knapp Shaw (1822–1906) (m. 1847) |
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Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, Billy Budd, his last and unfinished novel (1888-1891) and, above all, his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851). His work was almost forgotten during his last thirty years. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. He developed a complex, baroque style: the vocabulary is rich and original, a strong sense of rhythm infuses the elaborate sentences, the imagery is often mystical or ironic, and the abundance of allusion extends to Scripture, myth, philosophy, literature, and the visual arts.
Born in New York City as the third child of a merchant in French dry goods, Melville's formal education ended abruptly after his father died in 1832, leaving the family in financial straits. Melville briefly became a schoolteacher before he took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship. In 1840 he signed aboard the whaler Acushnet for his first whaling voyage, but jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. After further adventures, he returned to Boston in 1844. His first book, Typee (1846), a highly romanticized account of his life among Polynesians, became such a best-seller that he worked up a sequel, Omoo (1847). These successes encouraged him to marry Elizabeth Shaw, of a prominent Boston family, but were hard to sustain. His first novel not based on his own experiences, Mardi (1849), is a sea narrative that develops into a philosophical allegory, but was not well received. Redburn (1849), a story of life on a merchant ship, and his 1850 expose of harsh life aboard a Man-of-War, White-Jacket yielded warmer reviews but not financial security.
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