MELVILLE, HERMAN

born Aug. 1, 1819, New York City died Sept. 28, 1891, New York City American novelist, short-story writer, and poet, best known for his novels of the sea, including his masterpiece, Moby Dick (1851). Additional reading Studies of the author's life and work include Edward H. Rosenberry, Melville (1979), an introductory survey; Edwin H. Miller, Melville (1975), a psychobiography; Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville, Mariner and Mystic (1921, reissued 1968), interesting as the first biography; Lewis Mumford, Herman Melville, rev. ed. (1963), a little outmoded, but a sensitive appreciation of the man; Newton Arvin, Herman Melville (1950, reprinted 1976), a judicious critical biography; Leon Howard, Herman Melville: A Biography (1951, reissued 1967), a complete factual account of Melville's life, perceptively analytic; Jay Leyda, The Melville Log: A Documentary Life of Herman Melville, 18191891, 2 vol. (1951, reissued 1969), a fascinating collection of documents, photographs, and letters; William H. Gilman, Melville's Early Life and Redburn (1951, reissued 1972), a thorough record of Melville's youth and the relationships between fact and fiction in Redburn; and Tyrus Hillway, Herman Melville, rev. ed. (1979), a concise analytical biography. For literary criticism, see William E. Sedgwick, Herman Melville: The Tragedy of Mind (1944, reissued 1972), one of the best studies of Melville's ideas as they appear in his novels; A.R. Humphreys, Melville (1962), an excellent introductory study; and Kerry McSweeney, Moby-Dick: Ishmael's Mighty Book (1986), a compact but insightful and readable analysis of key points of the work and of its place among Melville's other works. Major Works: Novels Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846); Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847); Mardi and a Voyage Thither (1849), a political and philosophical allegory; Redburn, His First Voyage (1849); White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War (1850); Moby Dick; or, The Whale (1851, as Moby Dick; or, The White Whale in some later 19th-century editions); Pierre; or The Ambiguities (1852); Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, (1855), a historical novel of the American Revolution; The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857), a satirical allegory; Billy Budd, Foretopman, a short novel written 188891 and found after Melville's death; first published in Billy Budd, and Other Prose Pieces (1924). Other stories, sketches, and journals The Piazza Tales (1856), includes The Piazza, Bartleby the Scrivener, Benito Cereno, The Encantadas, or, Enchanted Isles, and The Lightning-Rod Man; The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches (1922), contains 10 sketches first published in periodicals, 185056; Journal up the Straits, October 1, 1856May 5, 1857 (1935); Journal of Melville's Voyage in the Clipper Ship, Meteor (1929). Verse Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866); Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876); John Marr, and Other Sailors; With Some Sea-Pieces (1888); Timoleon (1891), a collection. Poems unpublished during Melville's lifetime are included in later collections and selections.