HERMAN MELVILLE
(1819-1891)

'It is with fiction as with religion. It should present another world, and yet one to which we feel the tie.' 'There is no faith, and no stoicism, and no philosophy, that a moral man can possibly evoke, which will stand the final test in a real impassioned onset of Life and Passion. Faith and philosophy are air; hut events are brass. ' from 'Pierre'
LIFE AND CRATIVE ACTIVITY
Herman Melville was born in New York City. Though both his parents came from well-to-do families, a family business failure and, soon after, the death of his father made it necessary for him to leave school at the age of 15. He worked as a clerk, a farmer and a teacher, before becoming a cabin boy on a ship.
The period of intensive literary activity lasted for 10 years. His first novelette” Typee”(1846) brought him a real success. Basing on his own experience Melville united the features of «real adventures of a traveler» and romantic Utopia. Both of these literary trends had a wide popularity at that time. During one of his sea voyages the writer had been the prisoner of canibal tribe.
His tendency to something that is unusual and exotic, his curiosity as to the life of non-civilized peoples, who hadn't loose their links with nature, raised Melville's fantasy.. The writer described canibal’s life on islands as an ideal, on the background of which the social and moral drawbacks of the modern society show themselves with the special vividness.

The success of the first novelette helped him to continue the narration and he wrote 'Omoo' (1847). This book witnessed about the growth of Melville's skill as a writer. Then followed 'Mardi' (1849).
His shipboard experience served as the basis for a semiautobiogrophical novel, 'Redburn' concerning the sufferings of a genteel youth among brutal sailors. This theme of a youth confronted by realities and evils for which he is unprepared is a prominent one in Melville's works. Though based on Melville's experiences, the hero of the novel was more callow and unhappy than Melville himself was, for the sailing experience also gave him a love of the* sea and roused his desire for adventure.
In 1841 Melville went to the youth Seas on a whaling ship, where he gained the information about whaling that he later used in 'Moby-Dick'. After jumping ship in the Marquesa Islands,he and a friend were captured by some of the islanders. They lived with these people for a month, then escaped on an Australian ship. Deserting the latter in Tahiti, where they worked for a time as field laborers. Melville finally returned to the United States as a seaman on an American ship. These experiences provided material for his first and most popular books, which are primarily adventure stories.
In 1850 Melville moved to a farm in Massachusetts where Nathaniel. Hawthorne was his neighbor. The latter soon became a confidant with whom Melville often discused his work. As he changed from writing adventure stories to philosophical and symbolic works, Melville's popularity began to wane. From the writing of complex novels such as 'Moby-Dick', 'Pierre', and ‘The Confidence Man', Melville turned to writing poetry. But unable to support himself by his writing, he secured a political appointment as a customs inspector in New York. When he retired from that job, after 20 years, he wrote the novelette, 'Billy Budd', completing it just before his death. It was not until the 1920s that his work again came to the attention
of literary scholars and the public. His reputation now rests not only on his rich, poetic prose, but also on his Philosophy and his effective use of symbolism.