Timeline Herman Melville

The life of Herman Melville (1819–1891), the sailor turned novelist who wrote Typee and Moby-Dick, died almost forgotten and was rediscovered as one of America's greatest writers.

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Dashed left edge = started before this timeline · Dashed right edge = still ongoing

Herman Melville 14

1819 Herman Melville born in New York City Herman Melville is born in New York City into a prosperous merchant family.
1832 Melville's father dies Allan Melvill dies bankrupt, and twelve-year-old Herman Melville leaves school to work in a bank.
1839 Melville sails to Liverpool Herman Melville signs on as a cabin boy on a merchant ship to Liverpool, the voyage behind his novel Redburn.
1841 Melville sails on the whaler Acushnet Herman Melville leaves Fairhaven, Massachusetts, on the whaling ship Acushnet, bound for the Pacific.
1842 Melville deserts in the Marquesas Herman Melville jumps ship at Nuku Hiva and spends about a month in the Taipi valley before escaping on an Australian whaler.
1846 Melville publishes Typee Herman Melville's account of life among the Polynesians becomes a bestseller.
1847 Melville marries Elizabeth Shaw Herman Melville marries Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of the Massachusetts chief justice, and publishes the sequel Omoo.
1850 Melville moves to Arrowhead Herman Melville buys a farmhouse near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and befriends his neighbour Nathaniel Hawthorne.
1851 Melville publishes Moby-Dick Herman Melville's novel of Captain Ahab and the white whale appears in London as The Whale, and in New York a month later. It sells poorly.
1853 Melville publishes Bartleby, the Scrivener Herman Melville's story of a copyist who would prefer not to appears in Putnam's Magazine.
1857 Melville publishes The Confidence-Man Herman Melville's satire set on a Mississippi steamboat is his last novel published in his lifetime.
1866 Melville becomes a customs inspector Herman Melville takes a job as a customs inspector in New York, which he keeps for nineteen years.
1876 Melville publishes Clarel Herman Melville publishes Clarel, an 18,000-line poem about a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
1891 Herman Melville dies in New York Herman Melville dies largely forgotten. His unfinished Billy Budd is published in 1924, as the Melville revival begins.