Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist and a major literary figure whose exploration of psychological and abstract themes foreshadowed 20th-century literature. His works remained in uncertainty until the 1920s, when his genius was finally recognized. Melville's father, Allan, was a trade merchant and a member of a substantial Boston, Massachusetts, family. His grandfather, Major Thomas Melville, was a dignified survivor of the Boston Tea Party. Herman would visit him in Boston and his father would …

…his enemy. The body of the book is written in a wholly original, powerful narrative style. The sections of the body can stand by themselves as substantial short stories. Moby-Dick was not a financial success, and Melville's next novel, Pierre was a critical and financial failure. Today, however, it enjoys some acceptance by critics and the public. Melville had a third novel afterward, Israel Potter, which proved equally unsuccessful. Melville died in 1891 of natural causes.