Herman Melville

Herman Melville was born in New York in 1819; his father's debts and then his death, in 1832, ruined the family, and he worked from adolescence. After various jobs, he shipped out at twenty-one on a whaler, deserted in the Marquesas, spent a few weeks among the Typee and returned only after nearly four years. His first travel narratives brought him a quick success that did not last. Married to the daughter of the chief justice of Massachusetts, he lived thirteen years in the Berkshires, then spent nineteen years at the New York Custom House. He died in 1891, almost forgotten.

In the catalogue 2

• NovelMoby-DickHerman Melville · 1851LiteraturePublic domain
• NovelBilly Budd, SailorHerman Melville · 1924Literature