Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. Born in New York City, he went to sea as a young man, experiences that shaped his early fiction. His first books, *Typee* (1846) and *Omoo* (1847), drew on his travels in the Pacific and brought him initial success. Melville later wrote the novel *Moby-Dick* (1851), now widely regarded as his masterpiece, and *Bartleby, the Scrivener* (1853), a landmark short story. In his later years he worked as a customs inspector in New York and continued writing, including the posthumously published novella *Billy Budd, Sailor*.