Herman Melville was born in 1819 in New York City, the grandson of two Revolutionary War heroes. He began his career as an author in 1845 with the publication of the novel Typee, which recounted and fictionalized some of his adventures over three and a half years at sea on whaling and naval ships in the South Pacific. The book's success enabled Melville to write four more novels, including Omoo (1847) before publishing his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, in 1851. Met with an indifferent response when it was published, the book and author fell into obscurity until decades after the author passed away in 1891. In the early part of the twentieth century, the author and his work would undergo a radical reappraisal, and Moby-Dick would be recognized as one of the truly Great American Novels ever written.