Herman Melville
Literature & Poetry • Historical Archive • 🇺🇸 United States • 14 views

Herman Melville 🇺🇸

Herman Melville (Known as "Chronicler of the White Whale / Creator of Captain Ahab")
Novelist, Short Story Writer, Poet, Sailor, Custom House Inspector
Born 1 August 1819 🇺🇸 New York City, United States
Passed Away 28 September 1891 New York City, United States
Lifespan 72 years old
14 views
Notice / Correction
"Call me Ishmael. To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. (Moby-Dick). I would prefer not to. (Bartleby, the Scrivener)."

Archival Overview

Visionary American novelist whose maritime epic Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851)—opening with 'Call me Ishmael' and Captain Ahab's monomaniacal pursuit of the cosmic white whale—stands as one of humanity's supreme literary monuments.

Biographical Record

Herman Melville (1819–1891) sailed as a young seaman aboard merchant vessels and South Seas whaling ships, deserting his ship in the Marquesas Islands in 1842 to live among the Typee tribe. His early South Sea adventures (Typee, Omoo) made him an overnight celebrity in America.

However, inspired by Shakespeare and his friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville poured his metaphysical soul into Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851). Narrated by Ishmael aboard the doomed whaler Pequod, the novel pits the monomaniacal, peg-legged Captain Ahab against the mysterious, cosmic force of nature embodied in the albino leviathan Moby Dick. Completely misunderstood and commercially rejected in his lifetime, Melville died in forgotten obscurity as a New York customs clerk, only to be rediscovered in the 1920s 'Melville Revival' as a towering titan of world literature.

Key Life Milestones

18 October 1851 CE

Publication of Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Published his titanic metaphysical whaling epic, which later became recognized as America's greatest novel.

November 1853 CE

Publication of 'Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street'

Published his prophetic absurdist novella in Putnam's Magazine, introducing the famous refrain 'I would prefer not to'.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Woodlawn Cemetery (Catalpa Plot, The Bronx)
New York City, United States
GPS: 40.8917, -73.8736
View on Memory Atlas
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