Herman Melville Biography A brilliant, but neglected, writer in
his time, Herman Melville (1819 – 1891) is today considered one
of the greatest American masters of symbolism in the nineteenth
century. He was born in New York City, the third of eight
children of Allan and Maria Melvill (the e in his name was added
later). Because of business failures, his family moved to
Albany, New York. As a young man, however, Melville went to sea,
where he gained the firsthand knowledge that appears in many of
his stories. In 1849, he wrote his first novel, Typee, which was
based on his experiences among cannibals; through it, he
achieved some success and moved to Massachusetts, where his
neighbor was Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the two became friends.
Melville's best works, though, were largely ignored during his
lifetime. In 1851, he completed his masterpiece, Moby Dick, but
the public and contemporary critics felt that it was a second-
rate book.Billy Budd , which is highly popular today, was not
even published until 1924.