At the middle of the nineteenth century,
Herman Melville was one of America's most popular writers, enjoying an
immense readership after his 1846 novel, Typee. Surviving
Hawthorne, to whom he had dedicated Moby Dick, by 26 years, Melville lived
the last nineteen years in relative obscurity, working in a customs house
along the New York City harbor. By his death in September, 1891,
few people acknowledged the author of Moby Dick and Billy Budd.
Today, Melville's reputation is secure as the author of some of the most
penetrating studies of human nature to come out of the nineteenth century
canon of American literature.
This page was last modified
on November 30, 2003,
and is maintained by
Dr. Geoffrey Grimes.
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