Speaking Volumes: Celebrate this famed novelist’s 200th birthday at your local library

This week, we celebrate novelist Herman Melville’s 200th birthday.

Melville’s best-known novel “Moby Dick” posthumously rose to fame as a literary masterpiece in the early 20th century. Melville was not appreciated until many years after his death, but today is considered one of the most important American authors of his era.

Melville was born on Aug. 1, 1819, in New York City. His father was a merchant of French goods supporting seven children.

By 1830, the family was plunged into poverty after the bankruptcy and subsequent death of Herman’s father. Melville and his siblings left school to run the remains of their father’s business.

During his adolescence, Melville took on many jobs — assisting at local schools, laboring on farms and working as a bank clerk.

At 21, Melville took on the job that would shape his literary interests. In 1841, he took a job on the whaling ship Acushnet. Melville would go on to serve aboard several whalers and move up the ranks to the role of harpooner.

In 1843, Melville enlisted in the U.S. Navy and spent his final year working in the Pacific Ocean on the Navy Ship United States.

In 1844, Melville returned to his family home and began writing about his experiences at sea and the tales he heard from fellow sailors.

From 1845-50, Melville published five successful sailing adventure novels and gained a following of readers in the U.S. and England.

In 1851, Melville published a book very unlike his previous ones. “Moby Dick” was the complex allegorical story of a man’s obsession with revenge against a great white whale.

With feedback from “The Scarlet Letter” author Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville abandoned his usual style of writing. At the time, it was terrible for his career. Melville’s fans were disappointed by the huge departure from the adventure stories for which he was known.

During Melville’s lifetime, the book only sold 3,000 copies. For many years, Melville continued to published short stories and poems but could not recreate his early success.

By 1876, all of his novels were out of print. Unable to make a living as an author, he worked for the next two decades as an inspector for U.S. Customs. He died in 1891.

In the 1920s his writings gained the attention of the literary world. At the centennial of Melville’s birth, Raymond Weaver, a literature professor, published the first Herman Melville biography.

Interpretations of “Moby Dick” became a popular dissertation topic at the top universities, gaining the reputation as the American classic we know it as today.

Your library has many copies of Herman Melville’s work, including his individual novels and anthologies of his short stories and poetry.

Call your local branch for more information on available titles.

▪ Central Library — 941-748-5555;

▪ Braden River — 941-727-6079;

▪ Island — 941-778-6341;

▪ Palmetto — 941-722-3333;

▪ Rocky Bluff — 941-723-4821;

▪ South Manatee — 941-755-3892.

You also can access the library via the internet at mymanatee.org/library.

Katie Fleck is a librarian at the Central Library in downtown Bradenton. Speaking Volumes, written by Manatee County Public Library System staff members, is published each Sunday in the Bradenton Herald.