He tried banking, farming, even fur trading. Then he turned his attention to the ocean, and his life changed forever. After his first voyage at age 19, he tried a brief stint fortune-seeking in the Midwest — but the sea had left its mark on his soul. In 1840, Melville signed on to the whaling ship Acushnet out of Fairhaven, Mass.

Four years later, Melville was serving on the frigate United States when the entire crew was suddenly discharged in Boston. Melville’s oceangoing career had come to an abrupt halt, but the change set the stage for a new pursuit. Reunited with his family, he found an audience eager to hear about his adventures at sea. Friends encouraged him to write them down — and Herman Melville, author, was born.

Melville himself said he didn’t truly begin to live until age 25. He wrote to friend and confidant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Until I was twenty-five, I had no development at all. From my twenty-fifth year I date my life. Three weeks have scarcely passed, at any time between then and now, that I have not unfolded within myself.”

Part of that personal growth included his marriage to Elizabeth Shaw in 1847. She was a loving and supportive wife, though her letters to friends and family revealed some strain in the relationship as her husband became consumed with his writing.

A versatile author, Melville produced short stories, novels and poetry, often inspired by his experiences at sea. Though Moby Dick is his most famous work by far, Billy Budd, an unfinished manuscript, is considered Melville’s “other classic” and was published posthumously.

Melville died of a heart attack in New York City in 1891. Despite his earlier popularity, he died a relative unknown. He remained unrecognized until the early 1900s, when he emerged as one of America’s greatest writers.