Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American writer of the American Renaissance period. His best-known works include Typee, a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia, the seminal Moby-Dick, and the posthumously published novella Billy Budd, Sailor.

Although Melville was not well known to the public at the time of his death, a revival of his work began in 1919, the centennial of his birth. Moby-Dick has since come to be considered one of the Great American Novels.