Herman Melville

Birth Name:

Herman Melvill

Birth Date:

August 1, 1819

Birth Place:

New York City, New York

Death Date:

September 28, 1891

Place of Death:

New York City, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Heart disease

Cemetery Name:

Woodlawn Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Writers and Poets

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. Although his reputation was not high at the time of his death, the centennial of his birth in 1919 was the starting point of a Melville revival, and Moby-Dick grew to be considered one of the great American novels.

Fun Facts

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, the allegorical novel about Captain Ahab’s search to kill a great white whale, was based on real-life events. Born in 1819, author Herman Melville grew up during the peak of American dominance of the whaling industry, roughly the period between 1820 and the start of the Civil War. Weaving contemporary accounts and his own experiences as a whaler, Melville created his American masterpiece.

The young Melville was famously inspired by the story of George Pollard, the former captain of the whaler Essex. While on a two-year whaling expedition crisscrossing the Pacific, the Essex was rammed by a sperm whale. Quickly abandoning ship and thousands of miles from land, Pollard and his crew escaped in leaky lifeboats to begin a horrific ordeal resulting in sickness, starvation, and cannibalism. One of the few to survive, Pollard was given a second chance at captaining another whaler, the Two Brothers. But after 18 months in the Pacific, Pollard ran the Two Brothers aground, sinking the ship in what is now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

The name of the whale was also inspired by real-life events. In 1839, Melville read a story in a magazine about an albino sperm whale famed for its deadly attacks on whaling ships trying to hunt it down. This whale, killed off the coast of Chile near Mocha Island, was called Mocha Dick.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Woodlawn Cemetery

4199 Webster Avenue

Bronx, New York, 10470

USA

North America

Map:

Cemetery map of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Grave Location:

Catalpa Plot, Section 23

Grave Location Description

From the Jerome Avenue entrance head straight ahead on Central Avenue for about 0.50 miles. Then turn right on Catalpa Avenue as Central makes a sharp turn to the right. Make your way to the small road that runs parallel to Catalpa Avenue on your right. Look for the small paved path directly in the center of the Calalpa section and walk for 115 feet and Herman Melville’s headstone will be on your left near the path.