Herman Melville

How it begins

The society into which Herman Melville was born was in the fullest sense of the word a provincial one. His heritage and his work united him with that society; and when its occupations were undermined and its customs effaced by the great tide of destruction that marked the Civil War, he himself was intimately involved in its ruin. By a provincial society I mean one which finds its sources and motives within its own region, and that achieves a certain balance and continuity by a restricted development.