"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." So begins what Hennig Cohen in Dictionary of Literary Biography called "One of the few American books recognized as a world classic," the allegorical tale of seagoing adventure and whale-hunting, Moby Dick; or, The Whale. Penning these opening lines, Herman Melville could just as easily have been describing himself instead of his narrator. As a young man of twenty-one without prospects on land, Melville too shipped out to discover the world, and in so doing discovered in himself the urge to be a writer. At sea for almost four years, Melville accumulated enough material for many novels. Also like the narrator of Moby Dick, Melville can be...