Museum Planet

Herman Melville (b. 1819 NYC – d. NYC 1891) is reputed to have designed his own grave with the blank scroll. It may have been in reaction to his bitterness over which his greatest novel (and one of America's greatest novels) 'Moby Dick' was received. Born into a once-prominent New York family, Herman Melville was raised in an atmosphere of financial instability and genteel pretense. At age 12 his father, Allan, an importer of French dry goods, went bankrupt became insane and died. Melville worked jobs ranging from banking to teaching to support his family. His adventures as a seaman inspired him to write. On one voyage, he was captured and held for several months by the Typees in Polynesia. Later he joined the navy, from which he was discharged in Boston in 1844. Friends encouraged him to write. In 1847, he married Elizabeth Shaw and moved first to New York and then the Berkshires. There he lived near the reclusive writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, who became a friend and confidant. By 1849 he had published five novels.

'Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life' was his first success; he continued his adventures in his second book, 'Omoo.' Interested in metaphysics, Melville wrote 'Mardi and a Voyage Thither', a philosophical allegory. It was a failure. He then wrote 'Redburn', a comedy. He made money from it. Then he wrote 'White-Jacket; or, the World in a Man-of-War.' He could not know it, but at 30 he was at the height of his fame.

In 1849 he sailed to London alone to arrange for the English publication of 'White Jacket' and stayed 17 weeks. He kept a journal. It was the diary of a working writer. He was a man who had risked everything to support his family writing.

'Moby-Dick' was nearly complete when his friend the author Nathaniel Hawthorne encouraged him to change the story from one about whaling into an allegorical novel. The famous opening line read 'Call me Ishmael.' Critics hated it. One called it 'Mad as a March hare; gibbering screaming like an incurable Bedlamite….' Not until much later would it would become a novel of importance. His next two important books 'Pierre; or the Ambiguities' and 'The Confidence Man' were not well received.

During the 1850s, Melville wrote magazine stories and farmed to support his families. In 1856 he traveled to Europe, where he saw Hawthorne for the last time. He realized his days as a novelist were finished. Back in New York he became a customs inspector and worked at that job for 20 years. The Civil War caused him to write poetry. He made a trip to the front lines in 1864 to observe the war. He published a book of poems 'Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War' in 1866. It was well received critically. Near the end of his life he started 'Billy Budd.' Melville died of a heart attack, completely forgotten and mourned by no one except his family. The unfinished 'Billy Budd' manuscript was found in his desk after his death. His reputation was not resurrected until the 1920s.