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

For Students

Herman Melville summary

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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).

World Poetry Day

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

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

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Hemp (Cannabis sativa).

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Ice Sledge Hockey, Hockey Canada Cup, USA (left) vs Canada, 2009. UBC Thunderbird Arena, Vancouver, BC, competition site for Olympic ice hockey and Paralympic ice sledge hockey. Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Vancouver Olympics

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The Jeff Koons tulips sculputure outside the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao, Spain, Basque Country.

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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

American writer

Alice Cary

American poet

William Faulkner

William Faulkner

American author

A son of Salem

Nathaniel Hawthorne

American writer

Tillie Olsen

American author

Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser

American author

Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

American author

Alice Walker

Alice Walker

American writer

Percival Everett

Percival Everett

American author

John G. Neihardt

John G. Neihardt

American poet

Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane

American writer

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

American poet

Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie

American author

Edmund Wilson

Edmund Wilson

American critic

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

American author

Richard Brautigan

American author

portrait of John Greenleaf Whittier

John Greenleaf Whittier

American author

Paul Auster

Paul Auster

American author

Ha Jin

Ha Jin

Chinese American writer

Quiz

"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.

Almost-Forgotten Artists Quiz

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:

Poetry: First Lines

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

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

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

Novels and Novelists Quiz

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

A Study of Poetry

American playwright Tennessee Williams, 1955.

Who Said It? Writers and Musicians 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