Melville, Herman

US writer. His novel Moby-Dick (1851) was inspired by his whaling experiences in the South Seas and is considered to be one of the masterpieces of American literature. Billy Budd, Sailor, completed just before his death and published in 1924, was the basis of an opera by Benjamin Britten (1951). Although most of his works were unappreciated during his lifetime, today he is one of the most highly regarded of US authors.

Melville's experiences as a sailor were also the basis for earlier fiction, such as the adventure narratives of Typee 1846 and Omoo 1847. He explored the dark, troubled side of American experience in novels of unusual form and great philosophical power. He was a friend of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne.