Publisher's description: Although he spent much of his career in obscurity, Herman Melville has since become known as one of America's greatest novelists, short story writers, and poets. The author of Moby-Dick, Billy Budd, Typee, White-Jacket, "Bartleby the Scrivener," and many other classic works, Melville was rediscovered in the 1920s by a new generation of writers who saw in his work an evolving sense of modernism. His work is now an integral part of the high school and college curriculum, and writers as diverse as Jack London, William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, and Norman Mailer have paid homage to Melville's poetry and prose. Herman Melville A to Z is the most comprehensive guide to his life and work. Entries examine the characters and settings of his novels and short stories, the critics and scholars who commented on his work, and Melville's friends and associates, including such prominent literary figures as Oliver Wendell Holmes and Nathaniel Hawthorne.