Herman Melville

No, *Moby-Dick* (1851) was a commercial failure during Melville's lifetime, selling poorly and earning mixed to hostile reviews. It was only in the 1920s, during the so-called "Melville Revival," that critics and scholars reevaluated the book, establishing it as a masterpiece of American literature.

Before *Moby-Dick*, Melville wrote popular adventure novels including *Typee* (1846) and *Omoo* (1847), based on his experiences in the South Pacific, which were his most commercially successful works. He also wrote *Redburn* (1849), *White-Jacket* (1850), the experimental *Pierre* (1852), and the novella *Billy Budd*, which was left unfinished at his death and published posthumously in 1924.

In 1841, Melville signed aboard the whaleship *Acushnet* out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and spent 18 months in the South Pacific before deserting in the Marquesas Islands. His experiences there, including living among the Typee people, became the basis for his first novel *Typee*, and he later drew on his whaling years as research for *Moby-Dick*.

The Melville Revival began in the 1920s, when critics published the first scholarly biography of Melville and new editions of his work appeared, reevaluating *Moby-Dick* as a work of profound psychological and philosophical depth. This period cemented his place in the American literary canon, where he had been largely forgotten since his death in 1891.