Herman Melville’s Followers (4,449)

Herman Melville

Born

in New York City, The United States

August 01, 1819

Died

September 28, 1891

Genre

Fiction, Poetry, Short Stories

Influences

Thomas Browne, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Milton, Edgar Allan Poe, Will ...more

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There is more than one author with this name

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet 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 no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would 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 sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a mer There is more than one author with this name

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet 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 no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would 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 sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but 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 the 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.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891. ...more

Combine Editions
Herman Melville’s books

Average rating: 3.6 · 773,372 ratings · 41,330 reviews · 1,588 distinct works • Similar authors

	Moby-Dick or, The Whale 3.56 avg rating — 605,938 ratings — published 1851 — 608 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bartleby the Scrivener 3.93 avg rating — 72,819 ratings — published 1853 — 166 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Billy Budd, Sailor 3.19 avg rating — 19,269 ratings — published 1924 — 500 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Benito Cereno 3.53 avg rating — 9,740 ratings — published 1855 — 771 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life 3.56 avg rating — 5,942 ratings — published 1846 — 2150 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Billy Budd and Other Stories by Herman Melville, Frederick Busch (Introduction) 3.56 avg rating — 4,765 ratings — published 1782 — 73 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville, John Dugdale (Editor), Tony Tanner (Introduction) 3.62 avg rating — 3,498 ratings — published 1857 — 418 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bartleby and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville, Stanley Appelbaum (Editor) 3.78 avg rating — 2,796 ratings — 53 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pierre; or, The Ambiguities by Herman Melville, Maurice Sendak (Illustrator), Hershel Parker (Editor) 3.65 avg rating — 1,446 ratings — published 1852 — 322 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Herman Melville: Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, G. Thomas Tanselle (Editor) 4.20 avg rating — 1,086 ratings — published 1851 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Herman Melville…

Series by Herman Melville

Anche i giovani leggono i classici (1 book)
by

Herman Melville

3.93 avg rating — 72,808 ratings

Moby Dick (2 books)
by

Herman Melville,

Bronisław Zieliński (Translator),

Mikołaj Wiśniewski (Afterword)

3.81 avg rating — 604 ratings

As story engines go, the classic revenge tale is a sturdy piece of narrative equipment. Shakespeare was fond of the theme (Othello)....

Polls

August 2017 Short Classic Poll

The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, 1842, 56 pgs

53 votes, 17.0%

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, 1952, 109 pgs

49 votes, 15.7%

The Lady with the Little Dog by Anton Chekhov, 1899, 80 pgs

34 votes, 10.9%

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, 1966, 126 pgs

32 votes, 10.3%

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, 1819, 60 pgs

31 votes, 9.9%

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, 1853, 64 pgs

24 votes, 7.7%

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, 1764, 125 pgs

24 votes, 7.7%

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West, 1918, 82 pgs

19 votes, 6.1%

Satisfaction Guaranteed by Isaac Asimov, 1951, 15 pgs

15 votes, 4.8%

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, 1905, 30 pgs

12 votes, 3.8%

The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat, 1937, 108 pgs

10 votes, 3.2%

A Worn Path by Eudora Welty, 1941, 32 pg

9 votes, 2.9%

312 total votes

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