Herman Melville was born into a family that in the fledgling republic had lost both money and status. Toughened at sea as a young man, he returned home to chronicle the deepest crises of his time while forever shaping our literature with 'Moby-Dick', 'Bartleby, the Scrivener', 'Benito Cereno', and 'Billy Budd'. Delbanco traces Melville's growth from the bawdy storytelling of Typee through the spiritual preoccupations building up to 'Moby-Dick', and the profound disillusionment of later works.