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Herman Melville

Herman Melville. 1819-1891. Biography. Born in NYC on August 1, 1819 to a somewhat poor family and had a father that was a “slow” man. He was one of eight children.

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Herman Melville

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  1. Herman Melville 1819-1891

  2. Biography • Born in NYC on August 1, 1819 to a somewhat poor family and had a father that was a “slow” man. • He was one of eight children. • When his father died in 1832, the family moved to Lansingbrough which is a small neighborhood with New York where Herman and his brother were forced to work to provide for the family. • Looking for work, he became a cabin boy on a ship going to Liverpool where he got the idea for a book known as Redburn: The first voyage. • He wrote the book, Moby Dick, which was a story about whaler’s romance during an 18-month cruise. • On August 4th, 1847, Herman married Elizabeth Shaw and had 4 children and the oldest of which commited suicide at age 19. • The death of his son really hurt Herman. • Herman soon became ill and died on September 28, 1891 at the age of 72.

  3. Important Works • Melville’s most known work was originally entitled “The Whale”, but we all know the book as “Moby Dick”. • Was published on October 18, 1851 in England; the first American version was published on November 14, 1851. • Book did not receive good reviews, and sold very poorly. • A lot of people criticized him for not including the epilogue in the final copy because they thought he should have provided a little more background information. • Melville’s first published book was entitled “Typee” made him famous in England. • Melville first tried to publish it in America, but was rejected because they thought it was “too fantastic to be true”. • Was later published in America after they made him revise it to make it seem more realistic (even though later, they found out that it was based on a true story).

  4. Herman Melville: born in New York city in 1819. Melville’s father died when he was only 12.

  5. Interesting Facts • 3rd of 8 children. • His grandfather was in the Boston Tea Party. • Moby Dick only sold 3,000 copies during Melville’s lifetime. • In 1826 Melville got scarlet fever, and it left him with permanently damaged eyesight

  6. Works Cited • http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/melville.htm • http://www.online-literature.com/melville/ • www.wikipedia.com • www.melville.org

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