Herman Melville was an American novelist born in 1819 in New York City. He had a difficult childhood, as his father died when he was young and left his family penniless. Melville worked various jobs including as a cabin boy and teacher before joining a whaling ship called the Acushnet in 1841. His experiences at sea inspired novels like Typee and Moby Dick. Later in life, Melville struggled financially and with his mental health, and some of his works were commercial and critical failures. He died in 1891, but his works experienced a revival in the 1920s thanks to biographies and studies written about him and his literature.