Herman Melville
Herman Melville was born on the 1st of August 1819, in New York City. He entered the world as the third child of Allan Melvill and Maria Gansevoort. His father was a prosperous merchant who imported French dry goods and traveled frequently to Europe. The family lived an opulent life supported by three or more servants at any given time. They moved every four years to larger quarters before settling on Broadway in 1828.
The collapse began when Allan Melvill spent beyond his means. He borrowed large sums from his own father and from his wife's widowed mother. By 1830, the Gansevoorts ended their financial support. Allan had left the family in debt exceeding twenty thousand dollars. The children likely never knew how deep the trouble went until after his death.
Allan died on the 28th of January 1832, two months before reaching his fiftieth birthday. He suffered from delirium and mental deterioration that deprived him of his intellect. Herman witnessed this decline closely since he had stopped attending school. The loss of his father shifted the family's material and spiritual circumstances dramatically.
Maria sought consolation in her faith and joined the First Reformed Dutch Church in April 1832. Her orthodox Calvinism became the most decisive intellectual influence on Herman's early life. The family struggled to survive without Allan's income. Herman worked as a clerk for $150 a year starting at age fourteen.
Herman signed aboard the merchant ship St. Lawrence on the 1st of June 1839. He sailed as a green hand from New York to Liverpool. The journey returned him to New York on the 1st of October 1839. He resumed teaching but left after one term because he was not paid.
In 1841, Melville signed a contract with the whaler Acushnet on Christmas Day. The ship measured some 104 feet in length and carried three masts. He received an advance of eighty-four dollars when he joined the crew list on December 27. The vessel set sail on the 3rd of January 1841.
The crew hunted whales near The Bahamas and Rio de Janeiro. They sent home barrels of oil along the coast of Chile. On the 23rd of June 1842, the ship reached the Marquesas Islands and anchored at Nuku Hiva. This location would become the site of his escape.
Melville jumped ship at Nuku Hiva Bay in the summer of 1842. He fled with his shipmate Richard Tobias Greene, known as Toby. Their stay formed the basis for Typee, published in 1846. He later wrote that reading Owen Chase's account of the Essex had a surprising effect upon him while at sea.
After leaving the island, Melville took part in a mutiny and was briefly jailed in Tahiti. He escaped to Eimeo and spent a month as a beachcomber. These experiences became the material for Omoo, the sequel to Typee.
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote an unsigned review of Typee in the Salem Advertiser. He called it a skilfully managed narrative by an author with freedom of view. The review appeared before Melville even knew Hawthorne existed.
In August 1850, the Melvilles joined literary figures from New York City and Boston in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. They attended parties, picnics, and dinners at a farm called Arrowhead. Nathaniel Hawthorne and his publisher James T. Fields visited during this period.
Hawthorne and Melville sought shelter from rain together on one picnic outing. They had a deep private conversation that changed their relationship. Melville read Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse and wrote a review titled Hawthrone and His Mosses. It appeared in two installments on August 17 and 24 in The Literary World.
Melville dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne in token of his admiration for his genius. He felt that Hawthorne had dropped germinous seeds into his soul. Their friendship meant something different to each man despite being natural allies.
Hawthorne offered Melville intellectual stimulation he needed while finding Melville's manic intensity exhausting at times. They spent days smoking and talking metaphysics at Arrowhead.
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities was published in May 1852 after taking nearly a year and a half to write. The New York Day Book published a venomous attack on the 8th of September 1852. The headline declared HERMAN MELVILLE CRAZY.
Critics scorned the psychological novel that drew on romance conventions but used difficult style. The book did not find an audience despite Melville's high hopes. He borrowed three thousand dollars from his father-in-law Lemuel Shaw to buy a farm in Pittsfield.
His next novels faced similar rejection. Redburn and White-Jacket received respectable reviews but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family. The Confidence-Man, published in April 1857, received reviews ranging from bewildered to denunciatory.
Melville traveled to England in November 1856 and reunited with Hawthorne for three days. They stopped to smoke cigars near Southport where Hawthorne recorded their conversation about Providence and futurity. Melville informed him that he pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated.
After these failures, Melville turned to public lecturing from late 1857 to 1860. He spoke at lyceums chiefly on Roman statuary and sightseeing in Rome.
Herman became a customs inspector for New York City in 1864. He held the post for nineteen years with a reputation for honesty in a notoriously corrupt institution. His position was sometimes protected by future American president Chester A. Arthur.
During these years, Melville suffered from nervous exhaustion and physical pain. He would behave like the tyrannical captains he had portrayed in his novels when coming home after drinking. His wife Lizzie refused to leave him despite fears for his sanity.
His eldest son Malcolm died in his bedroom at home at age eighteen from a self-inflicted gunshot in 1867. Stanwix, their younger son, died of tuberculosis in San Francisco in 1886. These losses marked his final years.
Melville retired on the 31st of December 1885 after several relatives supported the couple with legacies. He published two collections of poems intended for relatives and friends. Each had a print run of only twenty-five copies.
Lizzie found pages for an unfinished novella titled Billy Budd stored in a family breadbox. She could not decide her husband's intentions or read his handwriting in some places. The pages remained unpublished until 1919.
Raymond Weaver discovered the manuscript among papers shown by Melville's granddaughter. He edited it and published a quick transcription in 1924 that contained many misreadings. This version became an immediate critical success in England then in the United States.
The centennial of Melville's birth in 1919 started a Melville revival. Carl Van Doren wrote an article on Melville in 1917 that renewed interest in his writings. Scholars like Stanley Thomas Williams supervised dissertations that eventually became books.
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Common questions
When was Herman Melville born and where did he grow up?
Herman Melville was born on the 1st of August 1819, in New York City. He grew up in an opulent family that moved every four years before settling on Broadway in 1828.
What happened to Herman Melville's father Allan Melvill in 1830?
Allan Melvill left the family in debt exceeding twenty thousand dollars by 1830 after spending beyond his means. The Gansevoorts ended their financial support that year, leading to a collapse in the family's material circumstances.
How did Herman Melville escape from the Marquesas Islands in 1842?
Melville jumped ship at Nuku Hiva Bay in the summer of 1842 and fled with his shipmate Richard Tobias Greene. This event formed the basis for his novel Typee published in 1846.
Why did Herman Melville dedicate Moby-Dick to Nathaniel Hawthorne?
Melville dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne as a token of admiration for his genius. He felt that Hawthorne had dropped germinous seeds into his soul during their friendship at Arrowhead.
When was Herman Melville hired as a customs inspector in New York City?
Herman became a customs inspector for New York City in 1864 and held the post for nineteen years. His position was sometimes protected by future American president Chester A. Arthur.
Who discovered the manuscript for Billy Budd and when was it first published?
Raymond Weaver discovered the manuscript among papers shown by Melville's granddaughter and edited it for publication in 1924. The pages remained unpublished until 1919, though the centennial of Melville's birth started a revival in 1919.