25 Giu Herman Melville
Data di morte: 28 Settembre 1891
In: Woodlawn Cemetery, Webster Avenue, The Bronx, New York, Stati Uniti
Storia:
He was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period.
Among his best known works are Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences of Polynesian life, and his masterpiece Moby-Dick (1851).
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a merchant. Typee, his first book, was followed by a sequel, Omoo (1847).
Both were successful and gave him the financial basis to marry Elizabeth Shaw, a daughter of a prominent Boston family.
His first novel not based on his own experiences, Mardi (1849), was not well received. His next fictional work, Redburn (1849), and his non-fiction White-Jacket (1850) were given better reviews but did not provide financial security.
Moby-Dick (1851), although now considered one of the great American novels, was not well received among contemporary critics.
His psychological novel, Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852) was also scorned by reviewers.
In 1857, he traveled to England and then toured the Near East.
The Confidence-Man (1857) was the last prose work that he published.
He moved to New York to take a position as Customs Inspector and turned to poetry.
Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War.
In 1867, his oldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot.
In 1886, his son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired.
During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, left one volume unpublished, and returned to prose of the sea.
The 1919 centennial of his birth became the starting point of the "Melville Revival" with critics rediscovering his work and his major novels starting to become recognized as world classics of prominent importance to contemporary world literature.