Memorable Quotations: Herman Melville

Born in New York City, Herman Melville (1819-1891) is deemed one of the greatest American writers. 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 broadly popular romances. Melville's masterpiece, Moby-Dick (1851), the story of a whaling captain's fanatical search for the white whale that had torn off his leg, is at once a thrilling sea story, a profoundly symbolic examination into good and evil, and one of the grandest novels ever written. Both Moby-Dick and the psychological novel Pierre (1852) were misjudged at the time of their publication and poorly received. Although crestfallen by his failure to win an audience, by ailing health, and by debts, Melville continued to create such notable 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 (1924). After holding the position of customs inspector in New York City for 19 years, Melville died in destitution and oblivion. Ignored for many years, his work was revived in the1920’s.