Herman Melville (1819–1891) is the American author of Moby-Dick, the story of Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for a white whale. A former sailor, he drew on his voyages to the South Seas for his first books, which were popular, but Moby-Dick puzzled readers and he died almost forgotten. Rediscovered in the 1920s, he is now considered one of the greatest American writers.
Works
Typee, Moby-Dick, Bartleby, the Scrivener
A family's fall
Herman Melville was born in New York City on 1 August 1819, into a family of distinguished ancestry: both his grandfathers were heroes of the American Revolution. His father, an importer of French goods, went bankrupt and died in 1832, leaving the family in debt. Herman left school at twelve and worked as a bank clerk, a farmhand and a teacher.
In 1839 he sailed as a cabin boy on a merchant ship to Liverpool. Two years later, in January 1841, he signed on to the whaler Acushnet, bound for the Pacific.
The South Seas
In 1842, after eighteen months at sea, Melville and a companion deserted the Acushnet in the Marquesas Islands and spent about a month in the valley of the Taipi people. He left on an Australian whaler, was involved in a mutiny in Tahiti, and returned to Boston in 1844 as a sailor in the US Navy.
His first book, Typee (1846), told of his life among the islanders and was a great success, as was its sequel Omoo. Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the chief justice of Massachusetts, and became a well-known author of adventure books.
Moby-Dick
In 1850 Melville moved to a farm, Arrowhead, near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he became friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whom he dedicated his new book. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, published in London and New York in 1851, mixes adventure, chapters on whale biology and whaling, sermons, stage scenes and philosophical meditation.
The novel sold poorly and many reviewers were baffled; the London edition, published first, even left out the epilogue explaining how the narrator survived. Melville's next novel, Pierre, was a disaster, and his career as a popular author ended.
The customs inspector
Melville went on writing: stories such as Bartleby, the Scrivener and Benito Cereno, the novel The Confidence-Man, and from the 1860s mostly poetry. From 1866 to 1885 he worked as a customs inspector on the New York docks. He died on 28 September 1891; one obituary misspelled the title of his masterpiece.
He left in manuscript the short novel Billy Budd, published only in 1924. Around the centenary of his birth, critics and scholars rediscovered Moby-Dick, which is now regarded as one of the great American novels.
Anecdotes
The whale that sank a ship
Melville drew on a true story: in 1820 the Nantucket whaler Essex was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific. The survivors drifted for months in small boats. Melville read the account written by the first mate, Owen Chase, and met Chase's son on a ship in the Pacific.
Mocha Dick
Another inspiration was Mocha Dick, an albino sperm whale that lived near the island of Mocha off Chile and was said to have fought off many whaling boats. A magazine article about him was published in 1839.
Frequently asked questions
What is Moby-Dick about?
It is narrated by Ishmael, a young sailor who joins the whaler Pequod. Its captain, Ahab, who lost a leg to the white whale Moby Dick, leads the crew on a hunt for revenge across the oceans.
Was Moby-Dick a success when it came out?
No. It sold a few thousand copies in Melville's lifetime and earned him little. It was rediscovered in the 1920s.
Did Melville really go whaling?
Yes. He sailed on the whaler Acushnet in 1841 and spent about three years in the Pacific, on whalers and in the US Navy.