Herman Melville by Elizabeth Hardwick

Herman Melville by Elizabeth Hardwick

This compelling biography of Herman Melville, one of America's most enigmatic literary figures, recounts a life full of adventure, hardship, and moral conflict. The grandson of two wealthy Revolutionary War heroes, Melville spent the first years of his affluent childhood in New York City, until his father went suddenly bankrupt in 1830, moved the family upstate, and died shortly thereafter. Melville escaped to sea in his early twenties, sailing first to England, then to Polynesia, where he found himself fleeing from cannibals, joining a mutiny, and frolicking with naked islanders. Much of his writing was based on his nautical adventures, but his novels were, for the most part, unsuccessful and misunderstood. His only close friend was Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whom he dedicated Moby-Dick. Later in life, Melville had to accept work as a low-level customs agent to support his wife and children. Newton Arvin's eminently readable biography beautifully captures the troubled, often reclusive man whose major works include Typee, Omoo, Bartleby the Scrivener, Billy Budd, and his indisputable masterpiece, Moby-Dick. This winner of the 1950 National Book Award, Herman Melville is the wisest and most balanced single piece of writing on Melville -- The New York Times .a superb exercise of critical scholarship and an ornament to American letters. -- Saturday Review of Literature

Elizabeth Hardwick (1915-2007), a literary critic, novelist, and one of the founders of The New York Review of Books, was a literary critic, novelist, and one of the founding members of The New York Review of Books. Sleepless Nights and two additional novels, as well as a biography of Herman Melville and four collections of essays, including Seduction and Betrayal, a study of women in literature, are among her works.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780670891580
ISBN 10	0670891584
Title	Herman Melville
Author	Elizabeth Hardwick
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Penguin Putnam Inc
Year published	2000-06-05
Number of pages	176
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.