Herman Melville (1819 1863) is one of America s greatest writers. During his lifetime, Melville published nine novels, a collection of tales, and four volumes of poetry, along with various uncollected tales, poems, and reviews. Peter Coviello (introduction and notes) is a professor of American literature and queer studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His books include Intimacy in America: Dreams of Affiliation in Antebellum Literature and, most recently, Tomorrow s Parties: Sex and the Untimely in Nineteenth-Century America, which was a finalist for a 2013 Lambda Award in LGBT Studies.