Herman (Melvill) Melville (1819 - 1891)

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Biography

Herman (Melvill) Melville was a New Yorker.

Herman (Melvill) Melville is Notable.

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American writer of novels, short stories and poetry. His contributions to the Western canon are the whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851); the short work Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853) about a clerk in a Wall Street office; the slave ship narrative Benito Cereno (1855); and Billy Budd, Sailor, left unfinished at his death and published in 1924.

He was born on 1 August 1819 in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Allan Melvill and Maria Gansevoort. He was baptized on 19 August 1819 in New York City.^[1] One of his grandfathers participated in the Boston Tea Party. The other grandfather was a hero of the American Revolution.^[2]

His father died on 18 January 1832 in Albany, New York, when Herman was 12 years of age.

Herman was married 4 August 1847 to Elizabeth Knapp Shaw in Boston, Massachusetts.^[3][4]

• • Married:^[5]

• • In Boston, Aug. 4, Mr. Herman Melville, of New York, (author of "Typee" and "Omoo," ) to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Chief Justice Shaw of Boston.

Herman and Elizabeth were the parents of four children: Malcolm (1849-1867); Stanwix (1851-1886); Elizabeth (1853-1908); and Frances (1855-1938).

His mother, Marie, died on 1 April 1872 in Bridgeton, Rhode Island, when Herman was 52 years of age.

According to his death record, Herman Melville died on 28 September 1891 in Manhattan at the age of 72. At the time of his death, he was married. His occupation was author. His birthplace was New York City. His burial date was 28 September 1891. His father was listed as Allan Melville, born in Boston; his mother was listed as Maria Gansevoort Melville, born in Albany, New York.^[6] His remains were buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.^[7]

Obituary:^[8]

• Herman Melville

• Death of the Author of "Typee" and "Moby Dick."

• Herman Melville, the author, died in New York on the 1st of the present month. He had been in ill health for several years from the effects of sunstroke, and his death was not unexpected.

• The deceased was born in New York on August 1, 1819. His grandfather, Major Thomas Melville, was a member of the Boston Tea Party, served in the Revolution and is supposed to have been the last American who adhered through life to the cocked hat. His maternal grandfather was General Peter Gansevoort of Albany. Allan Melville, the father of the deceased, was a merchant who traveled widely and cultivated literary tastes, which were inherited by his son. Herman Melville's boyhood was spent in Albany, Waterford and Lansingburgh, and in the latter place, there are several still living who were his schoolmates at the academy.

• In 1837 he shipped before the mast on a New York vessel for Liverpool, thereby commencing his career of adventure. Four years later he sailed around Cape Horn in the Dolly for a whaling cruise in the South Pacific. The treatment of the captain was so harsh that Melville and a companion resolved to leave the ship. This they did while the vessel was lying in the harbor of Nukahiva, in the Marquesas Islands, in the summer of 1842. The island, which is about twenty miles long by ten miles broad, is mountainous in the center, the highest peak rising 4,000 feet, with alternate ridges and valleys. One of these valleys was inhabited by a warlike tribe of cannibals called Typees and the next by Happars, a friendly tribe. Melville and his companion, with great labor and many narrow escapes, climbed the mountains, intending to descend into the Happar valley, but lost their way and found themselves among the Typees. They were surrounded by a group of savage chiefs, one of whom sternly demanded to know whether they were friendly to Happar or Typee. "I paused of a second," writes Melville, "and I know not by what impulse I answered 'Typee.' The piece of dusky statuary nodded in approval and then murmured 'mortarkee' (good). "Mortarkee," said I, without further hesitation, "Typee mortarkee." The dusky figures about us leaped to their feet, clapped their hands in transport and shouted, again and again, the talismanic syllables, the utterance of which appeared to have settled everything.

• Young Melville remained in captivity for four months and was finally rescued by the crew of a Sydney whaler. He spent two years more in the Pacific, and on his return landed in Boston in October 1844. Not long after he made his debut as an author. His first book "Typee," was a narrative of his Marquesas adventures, and was published simultaneously in New York and London in 1846. The work had an immediate success and the spirit and vigorous fancy of his style was at once appreciated. The London Times was emphatic in its praises of the book. It was dedicated to Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw of Massachusetts, whose daughter Mr. Melville subsequently married. In 1850 he moved to Pittsfield, Mass., but subsequently returned to New York and was appointed to a position in the Custom House. The next year he followed up his success with "Omoo," a narrative of adventures in the South Sea. Then came "Mardi," "Redburn," "White Jacket," "Moby Dick, or the White Whale," and "Pierre," all of which were successful. For many years he was a writer for Harper's and Putnam's magazines.

• Gansevoort Melville, a brother of the deceased, was secretary of the United States legation at London under Martin Van Buren. The Gansevoort mansion at Waterford, where Heman Melville at one time resided, is still standing. In his writings Mr. Meville was virile and original To him is ascribed the introduction of the word "taboo" into the English language. It is used in his book "Typee" and was derived from the native language.

Sources

1. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FDY3-SJV : 14 February 2020), Herman Melvill, 1819.
2. ↑ Herman Melville Biography on Britannica.
3. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1K-LCL1: 29 November 2018), Herman Melville and Elizabeth K Shaw, 1847; citing Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007011048.
4. ↑ "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910, 1921-1924", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHK4-TBW : 28 July 2021), Herman Melville, 1847.
5. ↑ Matrimony Notice New Hampshire Sentinel Thursday, Aug 19, 1847 Keene, NH Vol: XLIX Issue: 33 Page: 3.
6. ↑ "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W69-4NF : 3 June 2020), Herman Melville, 28 Sep 1891; citing Death, Manhattan, New York County, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,322,827.
7. ↑ Find a Grave Memorial for Herman Melville.
8. ↑ News Article San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, Oct 18, 1891 San Francisco, CA Page: 12.

See also:

• Wikipedia
• The Works of Herman Melville on Project Gutenberg
• The New Yorker, July 29, 2019 Issue, Herman Melville at Home, By Jill Lepore, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/herman-melville-at-home. accessed 04 Feb 2022.