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Herman Melville: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was born on the 1st of August 1819, the third child of Allan Melvill and Maria Gansevoort, into a family that would soon crumble from the inside out. His father, a prosperous merchant with deep roots in the American Revolution, lived beyond his means, borrowing heavily from his own father and his wife's widowed mother to maintain a lifestyle that eventually left the family in dire financial straits. When Allan Melvill died on the 28th of January 1832, just two months before his 50th birthday, the young Herman was left to witness the mental and physical deterioration of a man who had once been the head of a comfortable household. The death of his father did not just strip the family of its income; it fundamentally altered the spiritual landscape of the Melville home, as Maria, the mother, turned to her strict Dutch Reformed faith for solace, immersing her children in an orthodox Calvinism that would shape the dark, moralistic undercurrents of her son's future work. This early trauma of financial ruin and paternal collapse created a psychological landscape of loss and instability that Herman would carry with him for the rest of his life, driving him to seek escape and meaning in the vast, indifferent oceans that lay beyond the shores of New York.
Desertion and The South Seas
On the 27th of December 1841, the whaler Acushnet set sail from New Bedford, carrying a young Herman Melville as a green hand, a common sailor with no prior experience, who signed a contract for one one-hundred seventy-fifth of the voyage's profits. The ship's journey took him through the South Pacific, past the Galápagos Islands, and eventually to the Marquesas Islands, where the reality of whaling life, brutal, exhausting, and often deadly, clashed violently with the romanticized adventures he had read about. On the 16th of June 1842, the Acushnet anchored at Nuku Hiva, and in the summer of that year, Melville and his shipmate Richard Tobias Greene, known as Toby, jumped ship, fleeing the harsh discipline of the vessel to live among the Taipi people in the Taipi Valley. This act of desertion was not merely a youthful rebellion but a profound rejection of the external authority that had governed his life, a decision that would become the raw material for his first book, Typee, published in 1846. The experience of living among the islanders, and later escaping to Tahiti and Eimeo, gave Melville a unique perspective on Western civilization, allowing him to view the West from the outside in and fostering a deep-seated hatred of authority and a lust for personal freedom that would permeate his writing. The stories he told upon his return, filled with tales of cannibals and exotic islands, captivated the public and made him an overnight sensation, but they also left him with a lingering fear that he would be remembered only as the man who lived among cannibals, a label that would haunt him even as he sought to write something deeper and more profound.
Common questions
When was Herman Melville born and who were his parents?
Herman Melville was born on the 1st of August 1819 to Allan Melvill and Maria Gansevoort. His father was a prosperous merchant who eventually left the family in dire financial straits before dying on the 28th of January 1832.
What happened to Herman Melville on the 16th of June 1842?
On the 16th of June 1842, the whaler Acushnet anchored at Nuku Hiva where Herman Melville and his shipmate Richard Tobias Greene jumped ship to live among the Taipi people. This act of desertion became the raw material for his first book Typee published in 1846.
When did Herman Melville write Moby-Dick and who did he dedicate it to?
Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick during the summer of 1850 while living at his farm Arrowhead in Pittsfield Massachusetts. He dedicated the novel to Nathaniel Hawthorne as a token of admiration after hosting him on the 4th of August 1850.
When did Herman Melville die and where was he buried?
Herman Melville died on the 28th of September 1891 from cardiac dilation and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx New York City. His final years were marked by isolation and the private publication of poetry volumes with print runs of only 25 copies each.
What job did Herman Melville hold from 1866 to 1885?
Herman Melville took a position as a customs inspector for New York City in 1866 and held the job for 19 years. He gained a reputation for honesty in a notoriously corrupt institution while suffering from nervous exhaustion and physical pain during these years.
In the summer of 1850, Herman Melville and his family moved to a 160-acre farm in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which he named Arrowhead, a name derived from the arrowheads that were frequently dug up during the planting season. It was here, on the 4th of August 1850, that the Melvilles hosted a group of literary figures, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose short story collection Mosses from an Old Manse had just been given to Melville. The encounter between the two writers was transformative, as Melville, who had been struggling with the direction of his career, found in Hawthorne a kindred spirit who could see the dark, psychological depths that lay beneath the surface of his own work. Melville wrote a glowing review of Hawthorne's Mosses, comparing him to Shakespeare and declaring that Hawthorne had dropped germinous seeds into his soul, a sentiment that would prove prophetic as Melville began to write Moby-Dick. The friendship between the two men was intense and complex, with Melville infatuated with Hawthorne's intellect and captivated by his artistry, while Hawthorne found Melville's manic intensity sometimes exhausting. They spent days smoking and talking metaphysics, discussing the universe with bottles of brandy and cigars, and Melville dedicated his new novel, Moby-Dick, to Hawthorne as a token of his admiration. This period of collaboration and mutual influence was crucial, as it provided Melville with the intellectual stimulation he needed to transform his initial plan for a simple adventure story into what would become the most ambitious book ever conceived by an American writer, a work that would explore the deepest questions of human existence and the nature of evil.
The Silence of the Critics
The publication of Moby-Dick on the 14th of November 1851 marked the peak of Melville's literary career, yet it was also the beginning of his long descent into obscurity. The novel, which had taken nearly a year and a half to write, was met with critical scorn and commercial failure, as readers and critics alike were baffled by its psychological complexity and its departure from the conventions of the romance genre. The New York Day Book published a venomous attack on the 8th of September 1852, headlined Herman Melville Crazy, a piece that would become a symbol of the public's rejection of Melville's new direction. The failure of Moby-Dick was followed by the even more disastrous reception of Pierre: or, The Ambiguities, published in 1852, which was heavily psychological and difficult in style, and which critics dismissed as the work of a madman. The commercial and critical failures of these novels left Melville in financial distress, and he was forced to turn to short fiction and magazine publications to support his growing family. The period from 1853 to 1856 saw Melville publishing fourteen tales and sketches in Putnam's and Harper's magazines, including the famous Benito Cereno and Bartleby, the Scrivener, but these works did little to restore his reputation or his finances. The silence of the critics and the public was a heavy burden for Melville, who had hoped that his next book would please the public and restore his finances, but instead, it led to a period of deep personal and professional crisis that would define the rest of his life.
The Customs House and The Poet
In 1866, Herman Melville took a position as a customs inspector for New York City, a job he held for 19 years and in which he gained a reputation for honesty in a notoriously corrupt institution. The role was a stark contrast to the literary life he had once known, and it provided him with a steady income but also a sense of confinement and frustration. During these years, Melville suffered from nervous exhaustion, physical pain, and a growing sense of isolation, and he would sometimes behave like the tyrannical captains he had portrayed in his novels, even beating his wife Lizzie when he came home after drinking. The death of his eldest son, Malcolm, on the 18th of May 1867, from a self-inflicted gunshot, was a devastating blow that further deepened Melville's despair and sense of loss. Despite the professional writing career that had ended, Melville remained dedicated to his writing, spending years on what scholar Robert Milder called his autumnal masterpiece, Clarel: A Poem and a Pilgrimage, an 18,000-line epic poem inspired by his 1856 trip to the Holy Land. The publication of Clarel in 1876 was a commercial failure, with only 350 copies printed and the unsold copies burned when Melville was unable to buy them at cost, but it represented a final, monumental effort to explore the deepest questions of faith and doubt that had haunted him throughout his life. The transition from novelist to poet was a natural one for Melville, who had turned to poetry as a meditative practice, and it was during these years that he began to find a new voice, one that was more muted and withdrawn but no less powerful.
The Final Years and The Unfinished Masterpiece
Herman Melville's final years were marked by a quiet dignity and a growing sense of isolation, as he retired on the 31st of December 1885 and spent his time reading, writing poetry, and caring for his wife, Elizabeth. The death of his younger son, Stanwix, on the 22nd of February 1886, from tuberculosis, was another blow that left Melville alone with his grief and his work. In his last years, Melville privately published two volumes of poetry, John Marr and Other Sailors and Timoleon, with print runs of only 25 copies each, intended for his relatives and friends, and he left one volume, Weeds and Wildings, unpublished. The novella Billy Budd, which he had been working on for years, was left unfinished at the time of his death, with the pages in disarray and his handwriting difficult to read. Melville died on the 28th of September 1891, from cardiac dilation, and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City. The New York Times initial death notice called his masterpiece Mobie Dick, a misspelling that was later erroneously taken to mean that he was unappreciated at the time of his death, but there were some appreciations, including a substantial article of appreciation published on the 2nd of October. The pages of Billy Budd were stored in a family breadbox until 1919, when Melville's granddaughter gave them to Raymond Weaver, who published a quick transcription in 1924, leading to a critical success in England and then in the United States. The posthumous publication of Billy Budd and the Melville revival of the 20th century would eventually restore Melville's reputation, but for the man himself, the final years were a long, quiet struggle against the silence of the world.