He was born
on August 1, 1819 in New York City. His father name was Allan
Melville and mother name was Maria Gansevoort Melville. His wife name was Elizabeth
Shaw the couple had four children two sons Malcolm Melville and Stanwix Melville
and two daughters Elizabeth Melville and Frances Melville.
During the
1830s, he was enrolled at Albany Academy and Albany Classical School, where he
studied classic literature and began writing poems, essays and short stories. In
1832 after the death of his father his studies are ended abruptly because his
family had to face financial crises.
In 1837 he
left Albany and start teaching at Massachusetts but he was not satisfied with
this job and returned to New York. During same year Melville’s family has to
face financial problems so they relocated to Lansing burgh where Herman
enrolled at Lansing burgh Academy to study surveying where he was hopeful of
gaining employment with the newly initiated Erie Canal project.
Then at
suggestion of his brother he signed on as a cabin boy for a merchant ship
called the St. Lawrence in 1839. Then in 1841 he went on his second sea voyage.
Herman
Melville is regarded as one of America's greatest writers. In 1956 his
masterpiece Moby-Dick adapted for the big screen this became the cause of his
fame. He also wrote many quotes on different topics. Famous one is given below,
“A smile is
the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.”
He died on September
28, 1891 in New York City at the age of 72 years.