Herman Melville(1819-1891) sailed as an ordinary seaman in the
Pacific as a young man, turning these experiences into a series of
romances that launched his literary career. By 1850 he was married,
had acquired a farm near Pittsfield, Massachussetts, and was hard
at work on his masterpieceMoby-Dick. Literary success soon faded,
his complexity increasingly alienating readers. After a visit to
the Holy Land in January 1857, he turned from writing prose fiction
to poetry. In 1863, during the Civil War, he moved back to New York
City, where from 1866-1885 he was a deputy inspector in the Custom
House, and where, in 1891, he died.
Edward W. Said (1935-2003) was University Professor of English and
Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He was the author of
more than twenty books, includingOrientalism, which was nominated
for the National Book Critics Circle Award;Culture and Imperialism;
andOut of Place- A Memoir
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