Herman Melville
Herman Melville (1819 - 1891) was an American writer. He was most known for writing about the sea, including his novel Moby Dick, or the Whale. Other works include Redburn: His First Voyage, White-Jacket; or, the World in a Man-of-War, and The Confidence Man.
- Herman Melville: BritannicaHerman Melville, (born August 1, 1819, New York City—died September 28, 1891, New York City), American novelist, short-story writer, and poet, best known for his novels of the sea, including his masterpiece, Moby Dick (1851).
- The Life of Herman MelvilleNot until the early 20th century was Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick first recognized as a literary masterpiece and touted as a cornerstone of modern American literature.
- Herman Melville At Home: The New YorkerThe novelist drew on far-flung voyages to create his masterpiece. But he could finish it only at his beloved Berkshire farm.
- Herman Melville: Poets.orgHerman Melville was born on August 1, 1819. After his father's death, Melville attempted to support his family by working various jobs, from banking to teaching school. It was his adventures as a seaman in 1845 that inspired Melville to write.
Research & Reference
- Herman Melville: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on Herman Melville. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Melville, Herman: American National BiographyAn American National Biography landing page on Herman Melville.
Streaming Media
- Herman Melville (A Concise Biography)This introduction to Herman Melville's life and work from the Famous Authors series begins by introducing the city of New York, Melville's hometown, and the influence living in the busiest maritime port in the world had on his work. Melville eventually left home to work on a sailboat, and soon went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to become a crew member on a whaling ship, an experience that he used when writing the masterpiece Moby-Dick. The film details the dangerous work of whaling and Melville's experiences at sea.
- Herman Melville: Bartleby the ScrivenerThis is Melville’s sardonic and symbolic story of a copyist at a Wall Street law firm who refuses to conform, responding to all requests with, "I prefer not to." Autobiographical in its despair over the public’s failure to understand the writer, prophetic in its foreshadowing of 20th-Century Absurdism, "Bartleby the Scrivener" provides a window into the work of Melville and a convincing argument that he may be at his best in the short story medium.
- The Melville Legacy - Moby DickABOUT THE AUTHOR: The Melville Legacy explores the life and works of Herman Melville (1819-1891), one of America’s most renowned 19th century authors. In his novels, Typee, Omoo, and Moby Dick, Melville demonstrates his mastery of the epic sea story, the latter considered by many to be the preeminent American novel.
Author's Works & Perspectives
Moby Dick, or the Whale
In Moby Dick Melville set out to write a "mighty book" on "a mighty theme." The editors of this critical text affirm that he succeeded. Nevertheless, their prolonged examination of the novel reveals textual flaws and anomalies that help to explain Melville's fears that his great work was in some ways a hash or a botch. A lengthy historical note also gives a fresh account of Melville's earlier literary career and his working conditions as he wrote; it also analyzes the book's contemporary reception and outlines how it finally achieved fame. Other sections review theories of the book's genesis, detail the circumstances of its publication, and present documents closely relating to the story. This scholarly edition is based on collations of both editions published during Melville's lifetime, it adopts 185 revisions and corrections from the English edition and incorporates 237 emendations by the series editors. This is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).
Bartleby and Benito Cereno
Herman Melville towers among American writers not only for his powerful novels, but also for the stirring novellas and short stories that flowed from his pen. Two of the most admired of these -- "Bartleby" and "Benito Cereno" -- first appeared as magazine pieces and were then published in 1856 as part of a collection of short stories entitled The Piazza Tales. "Bartleby" (also known as "Bartleby the Scrivener") is an intriguing moral allegory set in the business world of mid-19th-century New York. A strange, enigmatic man employed as a clerk in a legal office, Bartleby forces his employer to come to grips with the most basic questions of human responsibility, and haunts the latter's conscience, even after Bartleby's dismissal. "Benito Cereno," considered one of Melville's best short stories, deals with a bloody slave revolt on a Spanish vessel. A splendid parable of man's struggle against the forces of evil, the carefully developed and mysteriously guarded plot builds to a dramatic climax while revealing the horror and depravity of which man is capable. Reprinted here from standard texts in a finely made, yet inexpensive new edition, these stories offer the general reader and students of Melville and American literature sterling examples of a literary giant at his story-telling best.
The Confidence-Man
Long considered Melville's strangest novel, The Confidence-Man is a comic allegory aimed at the optimism and materialism of mid-nineteenth century America. A shape-shifting Confidence-Man approaches passengers on a Mississippi River steamboat and, winning over his not-quite-innocent victims with his charms, urges each to trust in the cosmos, in nature, and even in human nature--with predictable results. In Melville's time the book was such a failure he abandoned fiction writing for twenty years; only in the twentieth century did critics celebrate its technical virtuosity, wit, comprehensive social vision, and wry skepticism. This scholarly edition includes a Historical Note offering a detailed account of the novel's composition, publication, reception, and subsequent critical history. In addition the editors present the twenty-six surviving manuscript leaves and scraps with full transcriptions and analytical commentary. This scholarly edition aims to present a text as close to the author's intention as surviving evidence permits. Based on collations of both editions publishing during Melville's lifetime, it incorporates 138 emendations made by the present editors. It is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).
The Poems of Herman Melville
Unlike his fiction, which has been popular and often reprinted, Melville's poetry remains obscure. The last "collected poems" appeared in 1947 and "selected poems" in the 1970s, and only two books dealing exclusively with Melville's poetry have appeared, both published in the 1970s. In this revised edition of his Poems of Herman Melville, Douglas Robillard updates the scholarship on the poetry through his introduction and notes and makes a case for revised estimate of the importance of Melville as a poet. The Poems of Herman Melville contains entire texts of "Battle-Pieces" (1866), "John Marr and Other Sailors" (1888), and "Timoleon" (1891). Selected cantos from "Clarel" are reprinted with accompanying notes and commentary.
Chasing the White Whale
The twenty-five-hour nonstop reading of MelvilleOCOs titanic epic has inspired this fresh look at Moby-Dick in light of its most devoted followers at the moment of their high holy day, January 3, 2009. With some trepidation, Dowling joined the ranks of the Melvillians, among the worldOCOs most obsessive literary aficionados, to participate in the event for its full length, from OC Call Me IshmaelOCO to the destruction of the Pequod. Dowling not only survived to tell his tale, but does so with erudition, humor, and a keen sense for the passions of his fellow whalers."
Why Read Moby-Dick?
One of the greatest American novels finds its perfect contemporary champion in Why ReadMoby-Dick?, Nathaniel Philbrick's enlightening and entertaining tour through the world of Melville's classic. Alone among its peers, Moby-Dick'slength and subject matter have always made it an intimidating read, and in a moment when our culture increasingly comes to us in bites and bytes, Philbrick shows why this book will always deserve our time and capture our imagination. As he did in his National Book Award-winning bestseller In the Heart of the Sea, Philbrick brings a sailor's eye and an adventurer's passion to unfolding the story behind an epic American journey. He skilfully navigates Melville's world and illuminates the book's humor and unforgettable characters-finding the thread that binds Ishmael and Ahab to our own time and, indeed, to all times. An ideal match between author and subject, Why ReadMoby-Dick? will start conversations, inspire arguments, and make a powerful case that this classic tale still waits to be discovered anew.