What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?” “Sing out for him!” was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of clubbed voices. “Good!” cried Ahab, with a wild approval in his tones; observing the hearty animation into which his unexpected question had so magnetically thrown them. “And what do ye next, men?” “Lower away, and after him!” “And what tune is it ye pull to, men?” “A dead whale or a stove boat!

At first his progress on Moby-Dick moved swiftly. In June he described the book to his English publiHerman Melviller as "a romance of adventure founded upon certain wild legends in the Southern Sperm Whale FiHerman Melvilleries" and promised it would be done by the fall. Melville also wrote Billy Budd White-Jacket Israel Potter Redburn Typee Omoo Pierre The Confidence-Man and many short stories including "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" and "Benito Cereno" and works of various genres.

In 1919 the unfiniHerman Melvilled manuscript for his novella Billy Budd was discovered by his first biographer. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition especially Moby-Dick which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. Herman Melville (August 1 1819 – September 28 1891) was an American novelist short story writer essayist and poet.