AI overview
Herman Melville was an American writer and poet who lived from 1819 to 1891 and is remembered as one of the most important figures in American literature. His works, particularly his novels about the sea, have had a lasting influence on American culture and continue to be widely read and studied today.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1 August 1819
- Died
- 28 September 1891
- Works
- 2470
Top works
- Six Great Modern Short Novels
- The confidence-man
- White Jacket
- [Proofs of the illustrations to] Moby Dick, or The whale
- Melville's marginalia
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 4,015
- Total plays
- 154,194
Works in European collections
7 objects attributed to Herman Melville, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
Article
Herman Melville (born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American writer of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was not well known to the public, but 1919, the centennial of his birth, was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick would eventually be considered one of the Great American Novels.
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 common sailor 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 first book not based on his own experience, 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.
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1819 births1891 deaths19th-century American educators19th-century American essayists19th-century American male writers19th-century American military personnel19th-century American novelists19th-century American poets19th-century American short story writers19th-century American travel writers19th-century people from Massachusetts19th-century people from New York (state)
