August 1, 2019, marks the 200th birthday of Herman Melville, the American author best known for seafaring novels including Moby-Dick. Born the third of eight children in New York City, Melville’s career was shaped by both the encouragement of his family and the precarious financial and social status he experienced throughout his life.
Herman Melville at The New York Public Library features items from the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division, one of the most important repositories of literary manuscripts and correspondence by and about Melville in the world. Both the archives and the display situate Melville’s authorship within the broader cultural, economic, and social history of New York.
