Herman Melville

American author and poet, considered one of the greatest of novel writers, whose works included "Moby Dick," 1851, "Typee," 1846, and "Omoo," 1847.

Herman Melville was born the third of eight children. His father loved his family, but was not able with business savvy, and his death when Melville was 12 plunged the family into bankruptcy and debt. Young Herman was considered a slow learner. By the time he was 15 he was through with school and worked at a series of jobs for the next two years. At 17, he signed up as a cabin boy aboard the "St. Lawrence," heading for Liverpool, England. He fell in love with the sea.

In 1841, Melville became an ordinary seaman on the whaler "Acushnet." The ship's long trip around Cape Horn and into the South Pacific gave him a view of how harsh sea life can be. After 18 months, he jumped ship at the Marquesas Islands, where he lived with the natives, then signed up with an Australian whaler. At Tahiti, he stopped and went to work as a laborer, then signed on to the frigate "United States," being discharged 14 months later when the ship returned to Boston.

Those seafaring experiences became the basis of many of his works. Within six years, he published "Typee," "Omoo," "Mardi," "Redburn," and "White-Jacket." Later, he moved to a farm, "Arrowhead," near Pittsfield, MA, and it was here that he wrote "Moby Dick." He collapsed from exhaustion upon finishing it, and it was published in 1851. He published "Pierre" the following year. While his first books were popular, these latter two were not well received and largely ignored by the public.

Melville could not support his family from his writing and farming, so he became a lecturer. In 1863, he moved his family to New York where he became a customs inspector in New York City, a post he held for 19 years. He wrote several volumes of war poems in 1866 and a number of short stories.