Herman Melville is an American author, best-known for his novels of the sea and his masterpiece Moby-Dick (1851), a whaling adventure dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne. "I have written a wicked book and feel as spotless as the lamb," Melville wrote to Hawthorne. The work was only recognized as a masterpiece 30 years after Melville's death. Typee(1846), a fictionalized travel narrative, was the author's most popular book during his lifetime.
