Literature Network » Herman Melville

Travel Etc: Grand tours - The lady who looked nothing like a dame The world's great writers and their adventures in literature. This week, Herman Melville describes a scene in South Pacific

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From: The Independent - London
Date: 20011202
Author:Herman Melville / Ed Sexton

Herman Melville was born in 1819 into a well-connected New York family. His father's company collapsed in 1830, and his father died two years later, so Melville was forced to find work as a schoolmaster. After a series of temporary posts, he joined the whaler `Acushnet' and set sail for the South Seas. He drew on these experiences in what is now his most famous novel, `Moby Dick', but they also informed his other works, including his first novel, `Typee: A Romance of the South Sea', published in 1846, from which this extract is taken.

`Typee' was an immediate literary success. `Moby Dick' , ...

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