Herman Melville Defined

Part I of Essay
Herman Melville was born August 1, 1819 in New York. He was the third of eight children who lived in poverty throughout their late childhood. Melville grew up hearing tales of adventure, as his father was a world traveler and both his grandfathers’ Revolutionary War heroe ....

Part II of Essay
.... on the island he returned to his homeland and told stories to family and friends. They encouraged him to write of his adventures. The result was his first two well-known novels: Typee and Omoo. Shortly after this Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, and together they had four children. During his career, Melville was known as a great writer only for his early adventure novels. He was more interested in writing about “passion, innocence, religion, philosophy, and political subjects,” and refused to write, as he put it, “the other way” (13) ....