Essay Archive - Herman Melville
Herman Melville
In 1850 while writing The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne's
publisher introduced him to another writer who was in the midst of a novel. This
was Herman Melville, the book Moby Dick. Hawthorne and Melville became good
friends at once, for despite their dissimilar backgrounds, they had a great deal
in common. Melville was a New Yorker, born in 1819, one of eight children of a
merchant of distinguished lineage. His father, however, lost all his money and
died when the boy was 12. Herman left school at 15, worked briefly as a bank
clerk, and in 1837 went to sea. For 18 months, in 1841 and 1842, he was crewma....
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