Selected Poems of Herman Melville
$42.37
- Paperback
384 pages
- Release Date
27 June 2006
Summary
While best known for such novels as his monumental Moby-Dick, Herman Melville was also an extraordinarily gifted poet. This is the most complete anthology of Melville’s poetry ever published in a single volume. It features a large selection from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, along with Melville’s own notes and prose supplement; cantos from all four books of Clarel—A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land; selections from Melville’s later books, Timoleon
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780143039037 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0143039032 |
| Author: | Herman Melville, Robert Faggen |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Imprint: | Penguin Classics |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 384 |
| Release Date: | 27 June 2006 |
| Weight: | 289g |
| Dimensions: | 196mm x 128mm x 20mm |
| Series: | Penguin Classics |
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About The Author
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was born on August 1, 1819, in New York City, the son of a merchant. Orphaned at the age of twelve when his father died bankrupt, young Herman tried various jobs, including a bank clerk, a cabin boy on a voyage to Liverpool, and an elementary school teacher. He eventually shipped out in January 1841 on the whaler Acushnet, bound for the Pacific.
After deserting the ship in the Marquesas Islands the following year, he traveled to Tahiti and Honolulu. He returned to Boston as an ordinary seaman on the frigate United States and was discharged in October 1844. His early books, based on these adventures, brought him immediate success.
By 1850, Melville was married, had purchased a farm near Pittsfield, Massachusetts (where he became the impulsive friend and neighbor of Nathaniel Hawthorne), and was deeply engrossed in writing his masterpiece, Moby-Dick.
However, his literary success began to wane as his complex writing style increasingly alienated readers. Following a visit to the Holy Land in January 1857, he shifted his focus from prose fiction to poetry. In 1863, during the Civil War, he moved back to New York City. From 1866 to 1885, he served as a deputy inspector in the Custom House. He died in New York City in 1891.
A draft of his final prose work, Billy Budd, Sailor, was left unfinished and uncollated. His widow packed it away, and it remained undiscovered until its rediscovery and publication in 1924.
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