A Bibliography of Melville Biographies

In addition to traditional biographies, this page includes a section on letters, journals, and other personal materials.

Biographies and Biographical Information

• Allen, Gay Wilson, Melville and His World. New York: The Viking Press, 1971.
• Arvin, Newton, Herman Melville. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1950.
• Charvat, William, "Melville's Income." In American Literature, 15 (1943), pp. 251-61.
• Davis, Merrell R., "Melville's Midwestern Lecture Tour, 1859." In Philological Quarterly, 20 (1941), pp. 46-57.
• Freeman, John, Herman Melville. New York: Macmillan, 1926.
• Garner, Stanton, The Civil War World of Herman Melville. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1993.
• Gilman, William H., Melville's Early Life and Redburn. New York: New York University Press, 1951.
• Gilman, William H., "Melville's Liverpool Trip." In Modern Language Notes, 61 (1946), pp. 543-47.
• Gohdes, Clarence, "Melville's Friend 'Toby.'" In Modern Language Notes 59 (January 1944), pp. 52-55.
• Hawthorne, Julian, Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife. Boston: Houghlin, Mifflin, 1884.
• Hayford, Harrison, and Davis, Merrell, "Herman Melville as Office-Seeker." Parts 1, 2. In Modern Language Quarterly 10 (June, September 1949), pp. 168-83, 377-88.
• Heflin, Wilson L., "Melville's Third Whaler." In Modern Language Notes, 64 (1949), pp. 241-45.
• Hillway, Tyrus, Herman Melville. New York: Twayne, 1963.
• Howard, Leon, Herman Melville: A Biography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951.
• Leeson, Ida, "The Mutiny on the Lucy Ann." In Philological Quarterly, 19 (1940), pp. 370-79.
• Leyda, Jay, "The Army of the Potomac Entertains a Poet." In Twice a Year (1948), pp. 259-72.
• Leyda, Jay, The Melville Log: A Documentary Life of Herman Melville, 1819-1891, 2 vols. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951. Reprinted, "With a New Supplementary Chapter," 2 vols. New York: Gordian Press, 1969.
• Lucas, F. L., "Herman Melville." In New Statesman, 18 (April 1, 1922), pp. 730-731.
• Mansfield, Luther S., "Glimpses of Herman Melville's Life in Pittsfield." In American Literature, 9 (1937), pp. 26- 48.
• Mather, Frank Jewett, Jr., "Herman Melville." In The Review, 1 (August 9 and 16, 1919), pp. 276-78; 298-301.
• Mayoux, Jean-Jacques, Melville. Translated by John Ashbery. New York: Grove Press, 1960.
• Metcalfe, Eleanor Melville, Herman Melville: Cycle and Epicycle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.
• Meynell, Viola, "Herman Melville." In The Dublin Review, 166 (January, February, March 1920), pp. 96-105.
• Miller, Edwin Haviland, Melville. New York: Braziller, 1975.
• Mumford, Lewis, Herman Melville: A Study of His Life and Vision. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1929; London: Jonathan Cape, 1929. Reissued in a revised edition, London: Secker & Warburg, 1963.
• Owlett, F.C., "Herman Melville (1819-1891): A Centenary Tribute." In The London Bookman, 56 (August 1919), pp. 164-167.
• Puett, Amy Elizabeth, "Melville's Wife: A Study of Elizabeth Shaw Melville." Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1969.
• Quirk, Tom, "The Judge Dragged to the Bar: Melville, Shaw, and the Webster Murder Trial." In Melville Society Extracts, no. 84 (February 1991), pp. 1-8.
• Riegel, O.W., "The Anatomy of Melville's Fame." In On Melville: The Best From American Literature, Louis J. Budd and Edwin Cady, eds.. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1988, pp. 1-9.
• Robertson-Lorant, Laurie, Melville: A Biography. (Hardcover) New York, NY: Clarkson Potter, 1993. (Paperback) Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996.
• Rosenberry, Edward H., Melville. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979.
• Sealts, Merton M., Jr., The Early Lives of Melville: Nineteenth-Century Biographical Sketches and Their Authors. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974.
• Sealts, Merton M., Jr., Melville as Lecturer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957.
• Stewart, Randall, ed., The English Notebooks of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1941; reprinted, New York: Russell & Russell, 1962.
• Stone, Geoffrey, Melville. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1949.
• Tanselle, G. Thomas, "The Sales of Melville's Books." In Harvard Library Bulletin, 18 (April 1969), pp. 195-215.
• Thorp, Willard, "Herman Melville's Silent Years." In University Review, 3 (1937), pp. 254-62.
• Watson, Charles N., Jr., "The Estrangement of Hawthorne and Melville." In New England Quarterly, 46, No. 3 (1973), pp. 380-402.
• Weaver, Raymond M., Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1921.
• Winslow, Richard E., III, "New Reviews Trace Melville's Reputation." In Melville Society Extracts, no. 89 (June 1992), pp. 7-12.

• Davis, Merrell R. and Gilman, William H., eds, The Letters of Herman Melville. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960.
• Horsford, Howard C., ed., Journal of a Visit to Europe and the Levant, October 11, 1856--May 6, 1857, by Herman Melville. Princeton University Press, 1955.
• Horth, Lynn, "Letters Lost Letters Found: A Progress Report on Melville's Correspondence." In Melville Society Extracts, no. 81 (May 1990), pp. 1-8.
• Metcalfe, Eleanor Melville, ed., Journal of a Visit to London and the Continent by Herman Melville, 1849--1850. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1948.
• Minnigerode, Meade, Some Personal Letters of Herman Melville and a Bibliography. New York: Brick Row Book Shop, 1922.

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