Herman Melville belongs to the group of artists whose works grew in importance and stature after their death. His works exemplify the genre of Dark Romanticism. Born in New York City in 1819, he published Moby-Dick; or The Whale in 1851, the year before Harriet Beecher Stowe was to publish Uncle Tom's Cabin and the year after Nathanial Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter. Melville dedicated the book to fellow Dark Romantic, Nathaniel Hawthorne: "In token of my admiration for his genius, this book is inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne."

Herman Melville grew up listening to seafaring tales. Melville was enthralled with the yarns about whaling expeditions and other adventures at sea. In 1839, at the age of twenty, he took to the seas himself, starting off as a cabin boy on the merchant ship St. Lawrence. January of 1841 found him aboard the whaling ship Acushent. After a string of adventures, some of them rather misbegotten, he left the sea and settled into his mother's house in the fall of 1844, determined to write about his adventures.

His first manuscript, for the novel Typee was turned down in America, partly because the publishers had difficulty believing the tales were true. The book was published in England in February 1846 and launched his career and ambitions. Things progressed well for Melville; he published more novels and on an upswing in his career he married Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Chief Justice of Massachusetts. Melville burnished his portfolio, quickly turning out Omoo in 1847, Mardi in 1849, then Redburn in 1849, and White-Jacket in 1850.