All Formats & Editions

Herman Melville[a] (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick... Read Full Overview

The mixture of journalism, history and fiction; the presentation of a sequence of striking characters; the metaphor of a sailing ship as the world in miniature-all of these prefigure his next novel, Moby-Dick. The symbolism of the color white, introduced in... Read Full Overview

Herman Melville was one of the greatest American writers of the Renaissance period in the 19th century. Melville was a very influential writer in many genres of fiction, including sea stories, Allegory, and Gothic Romanticism. Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick remains one of... Read Full Overview

Herman Melville wrote White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War during two months of intense work in the summer of 1849. He drew upon his memories of naval life, having spent fourteen months as an ordinary seaman aboard a frigate as it sailed the Pacific and made the... Read Full Overview

The mixture of journalism, history and fiction; the presentation of a sequence of striking characters; the metaphor of a sailing ship as the world in miniature-all of these prefigure his next novel, Moby-Dick. The symbolism of the color white, introduced in... Read Full Overview

The way I came by it was this. When our frigate lay in Callao, on the coast of Peru-her last harbour in the Pacific-I found myself without a grego, or sailor's surtout; and as, toward the end of a three years' cruise, no pea-jackets could be had from the purser's steward: and... Read Full Overview

Herman Melville wrote White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War during two months of intense work in the summer of 1849. He drew upon his memories of naval life, having spent fourteen months as an ordinary seaman aboard a frigate as it sailed the Pacific and made the... Read Full Overview

An allegorical novel about the harsh life of a seaman onboard a nineteenth-century U.S. Navy frigate.

In 1843, after three years of voyaging in the South Seas, Melville signed up as an ordinary seaman on the man-of-war United States, and headed for home. What he observed on that trip formed the basis of White-Jacket, a success both as a story and as an expos? of certain naval... Read Full Overview

Herman Melville wrote White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War during two months of intense work in the summer of 1849. He drew upon his memories of naval life, having spent fourteen months as an ordinary seaman aboard a frigate as it sailed the Pacific and made the... Read Full Overview

In 1843, after three years of voyaging in the South Seas, Melville signed up as an ordinary seaman on the man-of-war United States, and headed for home. What he observed on that trip formed the basis of White-Jacket, a success both as a story and as an expos 'e of certain naval... Read Full Overview

White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War is the fifth book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in London in 1850. The book is based on the author's fourteen months' service in the United States Navy, aboard the frigate USS Neversink (actually USS United... Read Full Overview

White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War is the fifth book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in London in 1850. The book is based on the author's fourteen months' service in the United States Navy, aboard the frigate USS Neversink (actually USS United... Read Full Overview

White-Jacket (1850) is an adventure novel by American writer Herman Melville. Based on the author's personal experience as a seaman in the United States Navy--Melville spent fourteen months aboard the USS United States--the novel was both commercially successful... Read Full Overview