| |
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
 Born
into an impoverished family of distinguished Dutch and English
colonial descent, Melville was 12 when his father died. He
left school at 15, worked at a variety of jobs, and in 1839
signed on as a cabin boy on a ship bound for Liverpool, an
experience reflected in his romance Redburn. In
1841–42 he spent 18 months on a whaler, but intolerable
hardships on board caused him and a companion to escape from
the ship at the Marquesas Islands. The two were captured by a
tribe of cannibals, by whom they were well treated. After
being rescued by an Australian whaler, Melville spent some
time in Tahiti and other Pacific islands before shipping home
in 1844.
The immediate
results of his experiences were Typee: A Peep at Polynesian
Life (1846), Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the
South Seas (1847), as well as Redburn (1849), all
fresh, exuberant, and immensely popular romances. In 1847,
Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of Lemuel Shaw,
Chief Justice of Massachusetts. The popularity of his books
brought him prosperity, business trips to Europe, and
admission to literary circles in New York City. In 1850 he
bought a farm near Pittsfield, Mass., and became friends with
his neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The allegorical implications evident in his romances Mardi:
and a Voyage Thither (1849) and White-Jacket; or, The
World in a Man-of-War (1850) reached full development in
Melville's masterpiece, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
(1851).
Melville was
forced to sell his farm, and in 1866 he secured a poorly
paying position in New York City as a district inspector of
customs, a job he held for 19 years. His late works include
the volumes of poetry Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War
(1866) and John Marr and Other Sailors (1888) and the
long poem Clarel (1876). However, he wrote no more
fiction until his last years when he composed the posthumously
published novella Billy Budd, Foretopman (1924), the
tragedy of an innocent. Melville died in poverty and
obscurity. Although neglected for many years, he was
rediscovered around 1920 and has been enthusiastically studied
by critics and scholars ever since. Many of his unpublished
works were issued posthumously, notably The Apple Tree
Table (1922), a collection of magazine sketches; Journal
of a Visit to London and the Continent (1948); and Journal
of a Visit to Europe and the Levant (1955). |
