First published 2017
Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Shelden reveals the hidden romance that transformed Herman Melville from a writer of light adventure tales into the creator of Moby-Dick. Through fresh archival research, Shelden uncovers Melville's passionate, clandestine relationship with Sarah Morewood, an unconventional married woman whose rebellious nature matched his own. Their secret courtship unfolded against the backdrop of literary New England, where Melville mingled with figures like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Sarah's libertine spirit and their shared defiance of social conformity emboldened Melville to abandon safe literary territory. The thrill of forbidden love and intellectual partnership gave him courage to write his subversive whale tale. Shelden argues that this hidden affair explains the anarchic energy that drives Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt, solving a mystery that has puzzled scholars for generations. The book illuminates how personal passion can fuel artistic genius.
Genres: biography, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, secret-courtship
Setting: Literary New England
Period: 19th Century
288 pages · Paperback · Ecco