The Best of Herman Melville

Herman Melville's novels range from heroic epic to romantic adventure and joyous satire. This anthology shows all sides of Melville's power and range - the writing skills that have made him one of America's most respected and lasting writers. 

Melville wrote from direct, thrilling experience. Son of a formerly well-to-do family, he went to sea as a cabin boy on a sailing ship when he was twenty, after trying his hand as a bank clerk, teacher, and farmer. When he was twenty-one, he shipped out as a seaman on a Massachusetts whaler headed for the South Pacific. There he experienced first hand the adventures which became the Typee and Omoo. he jumped ship in Polynesia, lived with natives, signed on an Australian whaler, was imprisoned for mutiny, escaped, sailed on another whaler, was beached in Hawaii, worked for a merchant, then took a berth on a United States Navy frigate.

When he finally returned home, he recounted his adventures to entertain his family. Persuaded to submit his stories to a published, he was soon an internationally published novelist; today he is recognized as one of America's greatest writers.