Search for Biographies & Correspondence - 19C American Fiction - Reading Moby-Dick: ENG 3323

Why Use Biographies?

Biographies provide insights into individuals' lives and achievements. Biographies come in all shapes and sizes: some offer just factual information (full name, birth and death dates, place of birth, career history, etc.) while others provide more in-depth accounts as well as references for further reading.

When and Why You Should Use Biographies:

You need a quick account of an individual's life or accomplishments (e.g. brief sketches in encyclopedias)
You need an in-depth account of an individual's life or accomplishments (e.g. book-length biographies)
You need to offer a view of history through the lens of one individual's life or contributions
You need to track down where an individual's personal documents or objects are located
You need to better understand how perceptions of an individual have changed over time

Remember: Biographies are often subjective. Keep in mind who wrote and published the biography, and decide whether or not that author/publisher had any possible biases. You may need to consult multiple biographies on the same individual.

Find Biographical Overviews

American National Biography This link opens in a new window
Contains biographies on thousands of prominent American men and women, including authors.
Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Contains biographies on national and international authors (past and present), including poets, essayists, journalists, and dramatists. Includes the popular series Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Gale in Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
Contains biographies of men and women from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas.

Melville Journals & Correspondence

Journals by Hershel Parker (Editor); Herman Melville; Harrison Hayford (Editor); G. Thomas Tanselle (Editor) This volume presents Melville's three known journals. Unlike his contemporaries Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Melville kept no habitual record of his days and thoughts; each of his three journals records his actions and observations on trips far from home. In this edition's Historical Note, Howard C. Horsford places each of the journals in the context of Melville's career, discusses its general character, and points out the later literary uses he made of it, notably in Moby-Dick, Clarel, and his magazine pieces. The editors supply full annotations of Melville's allusions and terse entries and an exhaustive index makes available the range of his acquaintance with people, places, and works of art. Also included are related documents, illustrations, maps, and many pages and passages reproduced from the journals. This scholarly edition aims to present a text as close to the author's intention as his difficult handwriting permits. It is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).
ISBN: 9780810108226
Publication Date: 1989
Correspondence by Herman Melville; Lynn Horth (Editor) The letters by and to Melville in this volume extend from letters he wrote at the age of nine in 1828 to ones he sent and received during the year before his death at seventy-two in 1891. To fill the gaps within the correspondence, 542 editorial entries are chronologically interspersed for letters both by and to Melville for which no full text has been located but for which some evidence survives. This scholarly edition presents a text as close to the author's intention as his difficult handwriting or other surviving evidence permits. Fifty-two newly discovered letters by Melville, more than half of which are presented here for the first time, are added to those printed in the 1960 edition. This text is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).
ISBN: 9780810109810
Publication Date: 1993
The Letters of Herman Melville by Herman Melville; M. R. Davis (Editor); W. H. Gilman (Editor)
ISBN: 9780598658227
Publication Date: 1960
Herman Melville: Cycle and Epicycle by Eleanor Melville Metcalf Letters by, to, and about Melville with commentary by Melville's granddaughter.
Publication Date: 1953

Tips for Evaluating Biographies

Biographies, like any piece of information, need to be evaluated carefully. Below are a few checkpoints for evaluating biographies.

Is the biography complete or partial? Does the biography span the entire life of the individual, or does it focus on one aspect of the individual's life (e.g. early years, family, later years, etc.)? Note that while one kind is not better than the other, depth and complexity can differ.

Is there evidence of careful research? Look for a bibliography, sources for further research, end notes, or author's notes to explain what sources the biographer used.

When was the biography published? What is the copyright or update date? Older biographies can be excellent and telling (for their brevity or perspective), but newer biographies may include new information based on recent research.

Is the author of the biography qualified to write on this individual and topic? Is the biographer a noted scholar of the individual or the historical period?

Is there balance between the individual's achievements and strengths and their weaknesses? Is the biographer overly favorable or overly critical of the individual? Does the biography seem to deviate from reality?

Are there any available reviews of the biography? For book-length biographies, look for book reviews that may mention whether the book might be biased or the content lacking in factual documentation.
Consider why some individuals have many biographies written about them while others have few or none. If there are several biographies about an individual, compare any available book reviews of different biographies to see which one is considered the best or is identified as the "definitive source."