Herman Melville’s Followers (4,117)

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: 3.59 · 731,003 ratings · 37,237 reviews · 2,145 distinct works • Similar authors

	Moby-Dick or, The Whale 3.55 avg rating — 575,433 ratings — published 1851 — 7259 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 — 67,301 ratings — published 1853 — 433 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 3.18 avg rating — 18,469 ratings — published 1924 — 460 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 3.54 avg rating — 9,191 ratings — published 1855 — 59 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 — 5,669 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 — 4,632 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 — 3,335 ratings — published 1857 — 534 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 — 2,698 ratings — 45 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) 3.63 avg rating — 1,382 ratings — published 1852 — 206 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
	Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, G. Thomas Tanselle (Editor) 4.20 avg rating — 1,079 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

Moby Dick (2 books)
by

Herman Melville,

Bronisław Zieliński (Translator),

Mikołaj Wiśniewski (Afterword)

3.82 avg rating — 547 ratings

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

Polls

March 2016 Short Story Poll

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 103 pages, 1937

50 votes, 25.5%

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, 121 pages, 1922

28 votes, 14.3%

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, 122 pages, 1879

18 votes, 9.2%

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, 98 pages, 1941

16 votes, 8.2%

The Bet by Anton Chekhov, 64 pages, 1889

13 votes, 6.6%

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, 115 pages, 1936

12 votes, 6.1%

To Build a Fire by Jack London, 32 pages, 1903

12 votes, 6.1%

Xingu by Edith Wharton, 48 pages, 1916

9 votes, 4.6%

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov, 88 pages, 1865

7 votes, 3.6%

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, 64 pages, 1853

6 votes, 3.1%

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg, 56 pages, 1956

6 votes, 3.1%

The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo, 109 pages, 1829

6 votes, 3.1%

The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 64 pages, 1836

4 votes, 2.0%

A Pair of Silk Stockings and Other Short Stories by Kate Chopin, 64 pages, 1897

4 votes, 2.0%

House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata, Approx. 90 pages-Title Story Only, 1960

3 votes, 1.5%

Everyday Use by Alice Walker, Aprrox. 16 pages-Title Story Only, 1973

2 votes, 1.0%

196 total votes

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