Launch of moby-dick fails to make waves and sinks writer’ s career
With a place on every school syllabus and millions of copies sold, Herman Melville’s Moby-dick is considered one of history’s “Great American Novels” – yet, when it was published, the classic tale failed to impress its readers.
Initially entitled simply The Whale, it was sold as three volumes in the UK. When the story of Captain Ahab’s obsessive quest for revenge was released for American audiences under its now definitive title, on November 14, 1851, just fewer than 3,000 copies were printed. Half were sold within the first 11 days, but sales quickly slowed and, after two years, first editions were still available.
One early review in the Boston Post newspaper even went so far as to suggest the $1.50 cost for the book was too high, stating: “The Whale is not worth the money asked for it, either as a literary work or as a mass of printed paper.”
For Melville, who had experienced commercial and critical success with his first two adventure books – Typee, published in 1846, and its sequel, Omoo, released a year later – it was the beginning of the end of his literary career. In his lifetime, only 3,215 copies of Moby-dick were sold, earning him just $1,260, and, although he continued to write more novels, poetry and short stories, he was forced to take employment as a customs inspector to ensure stable income for his wife and children.
Famously beginning with the simple yet captivating line, “Call me Ishmael”, Melville’s masterpiece drew on his own experiences at sea between 1841 and 1844, most notably his time on the whaling vessel Acushnet, as well as the sinking of the Essex, a ship famously attacked by a sperm whale in 1820.
With detailed and descriptive accounts of whale hunting and oil extraction, as well as life on board a 19th Century ship, the story of Ahab’s pursuit of the creature that took his leg, as narrated by Ishmael, is now considered to have allegorical undertones and explores the new emerging American identity of the time. However, many have suggested a dwindling interest in maritime tradition meant the complex symbolism at the heart of the tale was lost on readers.
It was not until the 1920s, decades after Melville’s death, that scholars and critics alike began to recognise Moby-dick as ahead of its time in both writing style and skilful interpretation of themes including religion, defiance, fear, death and, ultimately, the pursuit of one’s own White Whale at any cost.
Today, Melville’s work has cemented its place in popular culture, with multiple adaptations and references in film, art and television. Moby-dick, in particular, is cited as the influence for many more classic works of literature – during his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech in 2017, songwriter Bob Dylan, for example, said it was one of the three books that influenced him most throughout his career.
He may not have lived to see his work become the pinnacle of American literature, but Melville perhaps knew true success could not be measured in reviews and royalties. Before his death, aged 72, on September 28, 1891, he said: “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.”