The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

August

Herman Melville (1819–1891)

I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.

— Herman Melville

Source: Wikimedia

Born in New York, Herman Melville was one of seven children. His father was a grain trader who attempted to transition, unsuccessfully, into the fur trade business. He lost all the family's money and then died shortly thereafter, leaving a 13-year-old Melville and his siblings to enter the workforce in order to support themselves.

Melville worked a handful of odd jobs for nearly a decade before stumbling into a life at sea in 1839. He first served as a captain boy on a merchant ship and then transitioned into whaling.

These years were filled with adventure, including a crew mutiny, capture by cannibals in French Polynesia, and a jail break. When he returned home in 1844, the stories he had accumulated from his own life and from fellow sailors he met along the way became the basis for his early works.

His first story, Typee, met with positive reviews in both the United States and Europe, as did his next three stories, Omoo, Redburn, and White-Jacket.

This encouraged him to begin work on the manuscript that would become Moby-Dick. Unfortunately, when it was published critics and readers did not respond favorably. This was a turning point for Melville, who continued to write but never achieved critical success again in his ...