Herman Melville Essay, Research Paper

1819-91, one of the greatest American writers; b. N.Y.C. His experiences on a whaler (1841-42) and ashore in the Marquesas (where he was captured by cannibals) and other South Sea islands led to the writing of Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), and other widely popular romances. Melville’s masterpiece, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851), the tale of a whaling captain’s obsessive search for the white whale that had ripped off his leg, is at once an exciting sea story, a heavily symbolic inquiry into good and evil, and one of the greatest novels ever written. Both Moby-Dick and the psychological novel Pierre; or, The Ambiguities (1852) were misunderstood at the time of their publication and badly received. Although disheartened by his failure to win an audience, by ill health, and by debts, Melville continued to produce such important works as The Piazza Tales (1856), a collection including the stories Benito Cereno and Bartleby the Scrivener, The Confidence Man (1857), and the novella Billy Budd, Foretopman (1924). After holding the position of customs inspector in New York City for 19 years, Melville died in poverty and obscurity. Neglected for many years, his work was rediscovered c.1920.