MELVILLE,
HERMAN

(August 1, 1819–September 28, 1891), was an American author. He is considered to be one of the world’s greatest novelists. In 1841 he had joined the crew of the whaling ship Acushnet, bound for the South Seas, the experiences of which proved invaluable in providing material for his novels. He sailed around Cape Horn, deserted in the Marquesas Islands, was held captive by Polynesian cannibals, escaped on the Australian whaler Lucy Ann, and finally ended up on the Island of Tahiti. He served on the frigate United States from 1843 to 1844, before settling near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 1856, he traveled to Palestine by way of Liverpool, where Nathaniel Hawthorne was serving as U.S. Consul. From 1866 to 1885, Melville served as a U.S. customs inspector on the New York docks.

In addition to his work, Moby Dick, 1851, Herman Melville wrote many successful books, such as: Typee, 1846; Omoo, 1847; Mardi, 1849; Redburn, 1849; White Jacket, 1850; Pierre, 1852; and Billy Budd, which was published in 1924 after his death. Melville described America’s mission in his book White Jacket:

Escaped from the house of bondage, Israel of old did not follow after the ways of the Egyptian. To her was given an express dispensation; to her were given new things under the sun.

And we Americans are a peculiar, chosen people … we bear the ark of the liberties of the world … In our youth is our strength, in our inexperience, our wisdom … 2534

In the forward to Moby Dick, Melville mused on dignity and democracy:

Thou shalt see it shining in the arm that wields a pick and drives a spike; that democratic dignity which, on all hands, radiates without end from God Himself! The great God absolute! The centre and circumference of all democracy! His omnipresence, our divine quality!2535