Herman Melville

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Herman Melville

Herman Melville

Learn why Herman Melville's enigmatic hero in the short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” prefers not

Explore Herman Melville's classic American short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” with Charles Van Doren

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Herman Melville summary

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Chapter 4 pg 42 - Chapter header of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Published in 1884 by The American Publishing Company

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Vincent Van Gogh, Self Portrait. Oil on canvas, 1887.

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poem. A poet in a Heian period kimono writes Japanese poetry during the Kamo Kyokusui No En Ancient Festival at Jonan-gu shrine on April 29, 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. Festival of Kyokusui-no Utage orignated in 1,182, party Heian era (794-1192).

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Woman tied to a ducking stool, a method of punishment by means of humiliation, beating, or death. (cucking stool)

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Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1855), founder of the house of Rothschild; lithograph by Friedrich Lieder, c. 1830.

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Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

Herman Melville: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Born	August 1, 1819 • New York City • New York
Died	September 28, 1891 (aged 72) • New York City • New York
Notable Works	“Bartleby the Scrivener” • “Benito Cereno” • “Billy Budd, Foretopman” • “Israel Potter” • “Mardi” • “Moby Dick” • “Omoo” • “Pierre” • “Redburn” • “The Confidence-Man” • “The Encantadas” • “The Piazza Tales” • “Typee” • “White-Jacket”
Movement / Style	American Renaissance

Photos and Videos

Herman Melville

Herman Melville

Learn why Herman Melville's enigmatic hero in the short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” prefers not

Explore Herman Melville's classic American short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” with Charles Van Doren

See All Videos and Images →

Master of the macabre

Edgar Allan Poe

American writer

Sarah Orne Jewett

Sarah Orne Jewett

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Alice Cary

American poet

William Faulkner

William Faulkner

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A son of Salem

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Tillie Olsen

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Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser

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Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

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Alice Walker

Alice Walker

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Percival Everett

Percival Everett

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Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane

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Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

American poet

Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie

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Edmund Wilson

Edmund Wilson

American critic

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

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Richard Brautigan

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portrait of John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier

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Paul Auster

Paul Auster

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Ha Jin

Ha Jin

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John Updike

John Updike

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Quiz

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Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

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"Self-Portrait with Straw Hat (verso: The Potato Peeler)," oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh, 1887. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 40.6 x 31.8 cm.

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4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

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Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

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Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)

Novels and Novelists Quiz

List

Vincent Van Gogh, Self Portrait. Oil on canvas, 1887.

Rediscovered Artists: 6 Big Names That Time Almost Forgot

Chapter 4 pg 42 - Chapter header of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Published in 1884 by The American Publishing Company

Periods of American Literature