Herman Melville

An item at American Writers Museum

An adventurous youth, Herman Melville traveled to the South Pacific he described in his novels Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847); worked as a cabin boy like the protagonist of Redburn (1849); and sailed on a whaler like Ishmael, who narrates Moby-Dick (1851).

Melville enjoyed popular success early on, but by the time he published Moby-Dick, he had lost his audience. Nonetheless, he wrote some of his finest books in his last decades, including Billy Budd, Sailor, published posthumously in 1924. Though he was unappreciated during his lifetime, retroactive scholarship has identified Melville as among the greatest of America's authors.

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum