Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 2
The definitive life of the great American writer concludes, chronicling Melville's achievement and courage after the critical and commercial failure of Moby-Dick.
Winner of the Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Award for Biography and AutobiographySelected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for
The first volume of Hershel Parker's definitive biography of Herman Melville—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—closed on a mid-November day in In the dining room of the Little Red Inn in Lenox, Massachusetts, Melville had just presented an inscribed copy of his new novel, Moby-Dick, to his intimate friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the man to whom the work was dedicated. "Take it all in all," Parker concluded, "this was the happiest day of Melville's life."
Herman Melville: A Biography, Volume 2, chronicles Melville's life in rich detail, from this ecstatic moment to his death, in obscurity, forty years later. Parker describes the malignity of reviewers and sheer bad luck that doomed Moby-Dick to failure (and its author to prolonged indebtedness), the savage reviews he recei
Herman Melville ( &#x; ) was a novelist, short story writer and essayist. It is said to have been the American Renaissance period during the time he wrote and published. However, Melville remained mostly unappreciated and neglected for most of his career.
Childhood and Youth
Herman Melville was born on August 1, , in New York City. His father, Allan Melville, was a merchant, and his mother was Maria Melville. He was the third of their eight children. Allan Melville spent much of his time out of New York and in Europe, as a commission merchant and an importer of French dry goods.
Both of Melville&#x;s grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War, and Melville took pride in the fact. It was a well established and colourful family, which facilitated Allen Melville to spend beyond his means.
Melville&#x;s education began in He was sent to New York Male High School, along with his brother Gansevoort. His father described him as very backward in speech and somewhat slow incomprehension at first, but he went to make remarkable improvement soon.
In , he was transferred to Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, and Herman enrolled in the English department.
He then w
Herman Melville
Herman Melville: A Biography offers an in-depth exploration of the life and literary genius of the author behind Moby-Dick. Rooted in extensive research and collaboration, this biography provides a nuanced narrative of Melville's life, contextualizing his experiences within the broader intellectual, cultural, and historical landscapes of 19th-century America. The book draws heavily on Jay Leyda's groundbreaking Melville Log, combining the rigor of archival discoveries with a narrative that seeks to humanize the author. By emphasizing the relationship between Melville's life events and his literary creations, the biography aims to restore the humanity often obscured in discussions of his works, revealing the motivations, influences, and processes that shaped his remarkable oeuvre. This biography distinguishes itself by not only recounting Melville's life but also treating his books as pivotal events within it. It examines how his personal experiences, literary inspirations, and creative struggles coalesced into the masterpieces that have stood the test of time. With a meticulous approach to documentation and inference, the book uncovers new insights into Melville
Herman Melville
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Who Was Herman Melville?
Herman Melville was born in New York City in He worked as a crew member on several vessels beginning in , his experiences spawning his successful early novels Typee () and Omoo (). Subsequent books, including his masterpiece Moby-Dick (), sold poorly, and by the s Melville had turned to poetry. Following his death in New York City in , he posthumously came to be regarded as one of the great American writers.
Early Life
Melville was born in New York City on August 1, , to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill (Maria added the "e" to the family name following her husband's death). In the mids, young Melville fell ill to scarlet fever, and though he regained his health not long afterward, his vision was left permanently impaired by the illness.
The family had enjoyed a prosperous life for many years due to Allan's success as a high-end importer and merchant. However, he was also borrowing heavily to finance his business interests, and after he moved the family upstate to Albany in a failed attempt to branch into the fur trade in , the family's fortune took a big hit. When Allan died suddenly in , finances dwindled
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