Detail of the Pens Left as Offerings on Herman Melville's Grave in Woodlawn Cemetery, August 2008

Herman Melville

Birth: Aug. 1, 1819
Death: Sep. 28, 1891

Author. Born in New York City to Allan Melvill, an importer of French dry goods and Maria Gansevoort, the third child of eight. He and his brothers attended the New York Male School where they could get something more than a common education. Allen Melvill overextended himself, however, and in 1830 moved his family to Albany, New York, and went into the fur business, a venture that ended in disaster. Mental collapse and illness lead to Allan Melvill's early death leaving the family in poverty. At twelve young Melville was forced to leave Albany Academy, and take a job as a bank clerk. He also taught irregularly in various schools. Melville shipped out in 1839 as a cabin boy on the whaler Achushnet. He later joined the US Navy. He lived briefly among the Typee cannibals in the Marquesas Islands. In his mid-20's Melville returned home and wrote of his journies. His early novels of South Seas adventures were quite popular; by age thirty had published five books in five years. His sixth book was a departure from his earlier style and Moby-Dick was probably misunderstood and the book ran counter to the mood of the times. It sold only about 3,000 copies during Melville's lifetime. In 1847 Melville married Elisabeth Shaw, daughter of the chief justice of Massachusetts. After unsuccessful lecture tours in 1857-60, Melville lived in Washington, D.C. for the first two years of the Civil War. He moved back to New York in 1863 where he was appointed customs inspector on the New York docks. Work that secured him a regular income, necessary with his plumeting popularity as a writer. When Melville died from heart failure in New York, a few respectful obituaries of the kind written about a man who has outlived his renown were printed. His unfinished work, Billy Budd, Foretopman, remained unpublished until 1924. His career had spanned fewer than 20 full length books. Soon after the second world war, a Melville society was organized after which, for the next two decades Melville and his writing attracted more research and scholarship than any other American author. (bio by: Iola)

Burial: Woodlawn Cemetery
Bronx
Bronx County
New York, USA

Text from: www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=705