The Handsome Sailor

As he labored on his masterpiece Moby Dick in 1851, Herman Melville was a popular and charismatic young author. One year later, this Melville—successful, outgoing, knowable—had gone underground. His letters, previously witty and expansive, would, for the rest of his life, be brief and businesslike. He burned manuscripts and letters received, left behind no personal journals, and by 1856 had ceased to write fiction altogether.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the mystery of Melville, arguably America’s greatest novelist, has enticed generations of readers and scholars. Most intriguing of all, perhaps, is Melville’s return to fiction very late in life. After nearly a thirty-five-year hiatus and with no intention of publishing, he wrote the tale of the handsome sailor, Billy Budd, just before he died. Through a combination of research, intuition, and sheer literary muscle, Larry Duberstein weaves speculations that bring Herman Melville to life in all his complexity and humor.