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Top 10 outstanding facts about Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period, best known for his novels of the sea, including his masterpiece, Moby Dick. The allegorical undertones that Melville cultivated throughout Moby Dick picked up on the link between whaling and a mid-19th century emerging American identity.

His writings borrowed heavily from his own experiences as well as other peoples’ fantastic stories that he heard during his travels. Because of his extensive experience as a seaman and a whaler, his descriptions of life out at sea were comprehensive and unflinchingly accurate.

Below are the top 10 outstanding facts about Herman Melville;

1. Rebranding the family

Mrs. Allan Melvill, 1815 – Wikimedia Commons

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819 to Allan Melvill and Maria Melvill. In 1830 Allan Melvill declared bankruptcy later on in January 28^th 1832 he died leaving the family in a pile of debt from loans and Allan鈥檚 unsuccessful business.

After Allan鈥檚 death, Maria was left to raise eight children under the age of 17 with collection agencies knocking on her door. In the midst of all of this, she added an 鈥渆鈥� at the end of their surname. It is not clear why she did this because it is a very unlikely and uncreative way to avoid creditors who were after her.

2. Living among the cannibals

Drawing of a tattooed man from the Marquesas Islands, 1846 – Wikipedia

In the summer of 1842 Melville and a friend, Richard Tobias Greene, hid in a forest in Marquessas Island until the ship they worked on sailed away. This is because Melville and the Acushnet鈥檚 captain didn鈥檛 get along. Melville spent three weeks living among the Polynesians.

He was very impressed with the sophistication and peacefulness of the natives, which was contrary to what most Europeans believed. Europeans believed the Pacific Islanders were cannibals who needed to be “civilized” by converting them to Christianity.

Melville’s drew on his South Pacific experiences in his first book, Typee (1846) which became a bestseller.

3. He fictionalized an actual whaling disaster

George Pollard – Wikipedia

The climax of Moby Dick, in which the Pequod of Nantucket is destroyed by the white whale, was actually an infamous shipwreck that Melville heard from the son of one of its survivors. After publishing the novel, Melvin visited and interviewed the Essex鈥檚 captain, George Pollard, who had survived the terrible ordeal and become the town鈥檚 night watchman.

In November 1820, a massive sperm whale had attacked and sunk the whaleship Essex of Nantucket in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Its crew, stranded in three small boats with little food or water, chose to drift more than 4000 miles to South America instead of 1200 miles to the Marquesas Islands.

Later, Melville wrote, “To the islanders he was a nobody鈥攖o me, the most impressive man, tho鈥� wholly unassuming, even humble鈥攖hat I ever encountered.”

4. Moby-Dick was originally known by a different name

Moby Dick or The Whale by Herman Melville – Flickr

Melville began writing Moby-Dick in February 1850, and finished 18 months later, a year longer than he had anticipated. The book was first published, in three volumes, as The Whale in London in October 1851, and under its definitive title, Moby-Dick, or, The Whale, in a single-volume edition in New York in November.

Melville made revisions, including a last-minute change of the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in the text of both editions as “Moby Dick”, without the hyphen. The first copies have The Whale as the title on the pages, since it was too late to reprint the edition.

5. Moby Dick was initially a flop

Moby Dick, the whale illustration – Wikipedia

The reputation of the novel as a “Great American Novel” was established only in the 20th century, after the centennial of its author’s birth. Its opening sentence, “Call me Ishmael”, is among world literature’s most famous.

However, Moby-Dick was initially published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author’s death in 1891. His American reviewers were shocked at its obscure literary symbolism and complexity. He made less than 600 dollars over the course of his life for Moby Dick.

6. Does our favorite coffeehouse have any connections to Moby Dick?

Starbucks – Flickr

In Moby-Dick, Starbuck is the first mate of the Pequod and operates as the voice of reason aboard the ship. He is a Quaker and periodically brings up a religious perspective in some of the arguments that take place on the Pequod’s journey. It is believed that the coffee company Starbucks is named after the first mate of the Pequod.

Starbucks was originally opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 30, 1971. Bowker recalls that a business partner of his, Terry Heckler, thought words beginning with the letters “st” were powerful, leading the founders to create a list of words beginning with “st,” hoping to find a brand name. They chose “Starbo,” a mining town in the Cascade Range and from there, the group remembered “Starbuck,” the name of the chief mate in the book Moby-Dick.

However, Bower, said, “Moby-Dick didn’t have anything to do with Starbucks directly; it was only coincidental that the sound seemed to make sense.”

7. There is a fine line been genius and madness

Pierra by Herman Melville – Flickr

In 1852 when writing the novel 鈥淧ierra鈥� Melville secluded himself from society to fulfill the personal nature of the book. His family and friends feared for his sanity. The novel is an intensely personal work, it reveals the somber mythology of Melville鈥檚 private life framed in terms of a story of an artist alienated from his society. It is complicated and edged with much darkness, particularly in the fatal conclusion.

In his late years Melville suffered from nervous exhaustion, physical pain, and frustration, and would sometimes, in the words of Robertson-Lorant, behave like the “tyrannical captains he had portrayed in his novels”.

8. He finally got a day job

Herman Melville – Wikipedia

In 1866, Melville became a customs inspector for New York City and maintained an office at 470 West Street. He held the post for 19 years and had a reputation for honesty in a notoriously corrupt institution.

At the same time, he mostly abandoned writing short stories and novels in favor of poetry. In between inspections he wrote Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land, based on his visit to the Middle East in 1856. It is among the longest single poems in American literature. The title character is a young American student of divinity who travels to Jerusalem to renew his faith.

9. He finally 鈥済ot鈥� his sperm whale

Livyatan melvillei skull – Wikipedia

 In 2010, a species of extinct giant sperm whale, Livyatan melvillei, was named in honor of Melville. The paleontologists who discovered the fossil were fans of Moby-Dick and dedicated their discovery to the author.

It is mainly known from the Pisco Formation of Peru during the Tortonian stage of the Miocene epoch, about 9.9鈥�8.9 million years ago. Characteristically of raptorial sperm whales, Livyatan had functional, enamel-coated teeth on the upper and lower jaws, as well as several features suitable for hunting large prey.

10. Was it more than friendship?

Nathaniel Hawthorne – Wikipedia

Melville lived near Nathaniel Hawtorne, he was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer whose works often focus on history, morality, and religion, in western Massachuetts in 1805 to 1851. The two became close friends and confidants.

Scholars have long acknowledged the profound influence Nathaniel Hawthorne had on Herman Melville. Melville dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne 鈥� 鈥淚n Token of My Admiration for His Genius鈥�. Some scholars have argued that Melville described the unattainable love that he and Nathaniel had via this book.