"Herman Melville was born on August 1, 1819, in New York City to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill, the spelling of which the family later altered to Melville." (1072) Melville's family had many hard times and his family would have to move from New York City, NY to Albany, NY. His father was an importer and wholesale merchant and his businesses would flourish for a while and then go under. In January, 1832, Allan Melvill died due to illness and exhaustion (1072). Once his father died, Melville's older brothers started working to help the family and Melville was pulled out of school yet again due to his family's financial ruins and began his apprenticeship as a clerk in a bank in Albany. Herman was not happy as a banker and decided to go back to school at the Lansingburgh Academy which was near Albany to study surveying and engineering so that he could be part of the building of the Erie Canal. Instead of helping to build the Erie Canal, he would "spend most of the following five years...on the high seas, gaining experiences that would finally lead him to become a writer." (1073) Herman Melville had his first book Typee; or, A Peep at Polynesian Life published in 1846.
Herman Melville is perhaps best known for writing the novel Moby Dick. Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorn were very good friends, thus the reason that Moby Dick was dedicated to him.
"Herman Melville." Belasco, Susan and Linck Johnson. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature Volume One: Beginnings to 1865. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 1072-1075.
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