By the time he wrote 

, his fourth novel, Herman Melville had accrued considerable fame as the author of 

and 

—two largely autobiographical narratives based on his three years’ sojourn as a sailor and vagabond among Polynesian islanders—and incurred critics’ scorn with his third novel, the long, satiric allegory called 

. Melville’s early success had encouraged him to make a profession of writing, and the commercial failure of 

 came at an especially bad time; he had married Elizabeth Shaw in 1847, and their first child was born the month before 

’s publication. Financially strained, Melville hastily undertook during the spring and summer of 1849 to write two novels he expected would capitalize on his reputation for tales of maritime…

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Citation: Hager, Christopher. "Redburn". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 July 2008; last revised 29 April 2020. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2440, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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