Melville, The Man
I’m reading the Penguin English Library edition of Moby Dick. It basically has a one paragraph outline of his life. I’ll transcribe it below. Because, although I knew of a number of his books, some of the details, even in this brief introduction to the man, were rather surprising to me.
“Herman Melville (1819-1891) became in his late twenties a highly successful author of exotic novels based on his experiences as a sailor - writing in quick succession Typee, Omoo, Redburn and White-Jacket. However, his masterpiece Moby Dick was met with incomprehension, and the other later works which are not the basis of his reputation, such as Bartley the Scrivener and The Confidence Man, were failures. Melville stopped writing fiction and the rest of his long life was spent first as a lecturer and then, for nineteen years, as a customs official in New York City. He was also the author of the immensely long poem Clarel, which was similarly dismissed in his lifetime. At the end of his life he wrote Billy Budd, Sailor, published posthumously in 1924.”
Moby Dick was actually out of print at the time of his death(!). And around 3200 copies were sold during his lifetime.
Me being new to Melville (other than Bartley the Scrivener, which I read in high school), I was surprised by a few things: that he was quite young as an author and had stunning early success; that Moby Dick was a commercial failure; that he (mostly) quit writing until the end of his life; that he worked as a customs official in NYC for the bulk of his remaining life.
“Herman Melville (1819-1891) became in his late twenties a highly successful author of exotic novels based on his experiences as a sailor - writing in quick succession Typee, Omoo, Redburn and White-Jacket. However, his masterpiece Moby Dick was met with incomprehension, and the other later works which are not the basis of his reputation, such as Bartley the Scrivener and The Confidence Man, were failures. Melville stopped writing fiction and the rest of his long life was spent first as a lecturer and then, for nineteen years, as a customs official in New York City. He was also the author of the immensely long poem Clarel, which was similarly dismissed in his lifetime. At the end of his life he wrote Billy Budd, Sailor, published posthumously in 1924.”
Moby Dick was actually out of print at the time of his death(!). And around 3200 copies were sold during his lifetime.
Me being new to Melville (other than Bartley the Scrivener, which I read in high school), I was surprised by a few things: that he was quite young as an author and had stunning early success; that Moby Dick was a commercial failure; that he (mostly) quit writing until the end of his life; that he worked as a customs official in NYC for the bulk of his remaining life.
I'd read a short bio of him last year and was stunned to learn about MD and what a "failure" it was during his lifetime. So common, yet so sad. I friggin love this book and am glad we're all reading it!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it’s shocking how good some of the writing is! I also like the low-key nature of this blog in our sharing of our thoughts about the book. With the (seemingly) increasing bombardment of bad news day by day, it feels good to be doing an activity that is uplifting and maybe even inspiring....
ReplyDeleteamen, brother.
DeleteMethinks that thee would blind us to the wickedness all about us by our warming our selves by the carcass of this old fish tale! Avast! Bear off, the lee shore grows closer by the hour!
ReplyDelete