Short answers, pulled from the story.
Herman Melville began writing Moby-Dick in February 1850 and completed it eighteen months later. The book was first published in London as The Whale in October 1851 and in New York as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale in November 1851.
The story centers on Ishmael, a sailor who narrates the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, commander of the whaling ship Pequod. The crew includes Queequeg, a tattooed Polynesian harpooneer, and Fedallah, a Parsee who serves as Ahab's harpooneer.
Captain Ahab seeks revenge against Moby Dick, a giant white sperm whale that had bitten off Ahab's leg on a previous voyage. The Pequod pursues the whale across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans until Moby Dick destroys the ship and kills Ahab.
Melville drew heavily on his own experience as a common sailor from 1841 to 1844, including time on whalers. The novel also draws on actual events such as the sinking of the Nantucket ship Essex in 1820 and the killing of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick in the late 1830s.
Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews in 1851 and became a commercial failure. The book was out of print at the time of Melville's death in 1891, and its reputation was only established in the 20th century following the 1919 centennial of the author's birth.