3rd period 5/9/07 Mrs. Breaux American Literature The days of Herman Melville
Herman Melville’s writing influenced and changed his life for the better. Herman was born in 1819 in New York City. He was born into a family that had always had financial problems. He was the third of eight children, and his parents were Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melville. In 1826 his father had said that Herman was “somewhat slow in comprehension.” Allan’s businesses were not going very well and his businesses went bankrupt. In 1832 Herman’s father, Melville, died and left his family behind. Melville was only 12 when his father passed away. He left his widow wife to raise the eight children on her own. Their oldest son, Gansevoort, went ahead and took his place and knew that he was now responsible for the family. He went ahead and took over his fathers business. After his fathers death, Herman started trying to take care of his family.
Melville did so much to try to support his family. He decided to step to the plate and go out and ger jobs so he could make sure they had everything they needed. Hima and his brother were pulled out of school in order for them to support the family. Melville went from workin as a bank clerk, to being a shcool teacher. He also turned out to be a decent student, a member of the local debate society, and also became a wonderful clerk int the family’s felt fur business. Melville became a seasman around the 1830′s and shipped as a cabin boy on the Acushnet. He worked so hard at making sure that his family had what they needed that it didnt even bother him to get different jobs everyday like he did. Melville made sure he did everything possible to keep a roof over his family, clothes on their backs, and food on the table. Once he became a seaman he started his writing, and that’s how his career began as a writer.
The family they had was a very big family. His mothers name was Maria Gansevoort Melville, who was the daughter of a general named General Peter Gansevoor. Her father was from a]Albany and was also know as “Hero of Fort Stanwix”. He was given that name from his role in the defense of that fort in Rome, new York, during the Revolution. Melville decided to name his second son after his grandfather, because of that great event. This family was one of the first in Dutch Albany, back in the 1600s. Hermans father, Allan Melville, was also from a very prominent family who where from Boston. Allans fathers name was Thomas Melville who was a Scottish immigrant that acheived wealth as a merchant. Melvilles grandfather, Thomas Melville has participated in the Boston Tea Party and was a major in General Washington’s army. Thomas was the first man that bought propery in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1816. When Herman was 12 yers of age his fathers business died which made the family of aight to move to Albany.
Herman Melville was a best-knkown authoer for hid novels of the sea and his wonderful book Moby Dick. This book was dedicated to one of his friends who was also a writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. “I have written a wicked book and feel as spotless as the lamb.” (Melville). His first book “Typee” was first published in Britian, where most of his work was published. This book sold about 6,000 copies in its first two years and was a huge sucess as the firs one. Melville’s career was higher in Britian then in America. One of his older brothers worked in the government in London, and it helped Melvilles career go up. In 1847 Melville got married to a lady named Elizabeth Shaw. He tried to get a job in the government because he didnt think that his writing was a good job for him to support his family with. When he went looking, everyone turned him down and did not give him a job. After three years of staying in New York, he went out and bought a farm called “Arrowhead,” next to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house and that’s how they became friends. In the next three years, Melville wrote three more novels named “Mardi”, “Redburn”, and “White-Jacket.” Melville was working on his masterpeice Moby-Dick and was almost done with in when Hawthorne encouraged him to change it from a very detailed story to an allegorical novel. This masterwork was missunderstood and it only sold 3,000 copies.
Hermans traveling days helped him figure out what he wanted to do in life. Melville began sailing during the 1830′s. He enjoyed it but was not dedicated to it. He focused on his writing more than everything. He also was a cabin boy on the St. Lawrence. It sailed in June 1839, from New York City to Liverpool. Melville later registerd in the Auastralian whaler “Lucy Ann” in August. Once he got to Tahiti, he joined a munity that was led by shipmated who were not satisfied because they had not been paid. The mutiny made him end up in jail from which he escaped. Melville based his second book “Omoo” on this mutiny. When he finally went back home, he saw that his family was not financially struggling anymore. Everything started to go good for them. Herman Melvilles writing inflenced his life in different ways, and one of them was that he was able to take care of his family without depending on friends.
Rough draft
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