Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist short story writer essayist and poet. He is best known for his novel MobyDick. His first three books gained much contemporary attention the first Typee becoming a bestseller and after a fastblooming literary success in the late 1840s his popularity declined precipitously in the mid1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891 he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the Melville Revival in the early 20th century that his work won recognition especially MobyDick which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America. Source: Wikipedia