- Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period
Born: | 01 August 1819 Comment | When did Herman Melville die? / Died | 28 September 1891 | How many years did Herman Melville live? / Lived | 72 years | Zodiac sign: | Leo |
Herman Melville Net worth 2024 (estimated)
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Herman Melville facts
- His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851)
- His work was almost forgotten during his last thirty years
- His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change
- He developed a complex, baroque style: the vocabulary is rich and original, a strong sense of rhythm infuses the elaborate sentences, the imagery is often mystical or ironic, and the abundance of allusion extends to Scripture, myth, philosophy, literature, and the visual arts
- Born in New York City as the third child of a merchant in French dry goods, Melville's formal education ended abruptly after his father died in 1832, leaving the family in financial straits
- Melville briefly became a schoolteacher before he took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship
- In 1840 he signed aboard the whaler Acushnet for his first whaling voyage, but jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands
- After further adventures, he returned to Boston in 1844
- His first book, Typee (1845), a highly romanticized account of his life among Polynesians, became such a best-seller that he worked up a sequel, Omoo (1847)
- These successes encouraged him to marry Elizabeth Shaw, of a prominent Boston family, but were hard to sustain
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