Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891), was an American author known primarily for the writing of Moby-Dick, which is regarded as one of the greatest American novels of all time. Billy Budd is perhaps his second-best well-known novel and also highly regarded. The Confidence-Man, meanwhile, is sometimes regarded as the first Postmodern novel.
His first two novels, Typee and Omoo made him one of the most famous authors in the United States overnight. One of his short stories, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is also quite well known. However, his most famous works were not successful in his lifetime: Moby-Dick failed pretty decisively and Billy Budd wasn't even published while he was alive. During his life, he was known for Typee, a pretty ordinary travel story in Polynesia, which you would probably never read today unless you take a course entirely about him.
In more recent years, his poetry has gained more notice, with some calling him the best 19th century American poet after Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.
His novels with pages here:
- Typee (1846)
- Omoo (1847)
- Mardi (1849)
- Redburn (1849)
- White Jacket (1850)
- Moby-Dick (1851)
- Pierre (1852)
- Israel Potter (1855)
- The Confidence-Man (1857)
- Billy Budd (1924)
Tropes found in his work:
- Dangerously Close Shave: In Benito Cereno, Babo gives his master Cereno a shave as Captain Delano watches. Babo lightly cuts Cereno's neck. This was a threat, Babo reminding Cereno to not say anything that would reveal the mutiny.
- Doorstopper: His magnum opus, Moby-Dick, is 654 pages long.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut, three of the primary characters in "Bartleby, the Scrivener." They gave each other these nicknames; Ginger Nut's comes from the cookies that the other two often send him out to buy.
