Herman Melville was an American novelist and a major literary figure whose exploration of psychological and abstract themes foreshadowed 20th-century literature. His works remained in uncertainty until the 1920s, when his genius was finally recognized. Melville's father, Allan, was a trade merchant and a member of a substantial Boston, Massachusetts, family. His grandfather, Major Thomas Melville, was a dignified survivor of the Boston Tea Party. Herman would visit him in Boston and his father would …showed first 75 words of 831 total…

…showed last 75 words of 831 total…his enemy. The body of the book is written in a wholly original, powerful narrative style. The sections of the body can stand by themselves as substantial short stories. Moby-Dick was not a financial success, and Melville's next novel, Pierre was a critical and financial failure. Today, however, it enjoys some acceptance by critics and the public. Melville had a third novel afterward, Israel Potter, which proved equally unsuccessful. Melville died in 1891 of natural causes.