About Me
I was born in New York in 1819, and grew up there and later in Albany, after money troubles made life difficult for my family. But I always had the desire to see the watery part of the world, and after a few years, mananged to get a job on a New York ship sailing for Liverpool. I retold the story of this journey in my novel "Redburn", which is a fine ole nautical read.After I got back, in 1837, I became a school teacher for three whole years, before I found the wanderlust rising in me again. This time, I sailed on a whaler, the Acushnet, bound for the Pacific. These experiences I wrote about in my novels Typee, Omoo and Mardi; and also in my book on the Galapagos, "The Enchanted Isles".In 1847 I finally settled to the land, and married Elizabeth Shaw. We first lived in New York City, and then later moved to a country farmhouse, where we lived for thirteen years. I wrote, and oversaw my acres, and was friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne. But my sadness was that the books I wrote there, which I considered my best - Moby Dick and Pierre - were not well-received by critics. In fact the reviews of Pierre were so bad I lost my publishing contract.From thereon, things went downhill. I had to do public lecturing, and became a customs officer. By the time I died no one really read me at all. It's really only in the twentieth century that people have begun to see sense and regard my books as the great works I always wanted to think that they were. Thanks for making me happy, even though it's posthumous!
