1819 Herman Melville is born in New York City on August 1, the third child and second son of Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melville.
1830 The Melville family moves to Albany.
1832 Allan Melville dies. Maria and her eight children move to Albany to be closer to the Gansevoorts.
1838 Melville enrolls at Lansingburgh Academy to study engineering and surveying.
1839 Melville sails for Liverpool aboard the St. Lawrence and returns four months later.
1841 Melville sails from New Bedford, Massachusetts, aboard the whaler Acushnet on January 3.
1842 Melville and Richard Tobias Greene jump ship in the Marquesas Islands. In July, Melville sails aboard the whaler Lucy Ann for Tahiti and is involved in a crew rebellion. In September, he jumps ship in Papeete, Tahiti.
1843 Melville does odd jobs in Honolulu before enlisting in the U.S. Navy aboard the frigate United States.
1844 Melville is discharged from the Navy in Boston in October.
1846 Melville publishes Typee.
1847 Melville publishes Omoo. He marries Elizabeth Shaw and settles in New York City.
1848 Melville publishes Redburn. He journeys to Europe.
1849 Melville publishes Mardi. His son Malcolm is born.
1850 Melville publishes White-Jacket. He purchases “Arrowhead,” a farm outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and forms a friendship with his neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne.
1851 Melville publishes The Whale, then reissues it under the title Moby-Dick. Melville’s second son, Stanwix, is born.
1852 Melville publishes Pierre.
1853 Melville’s first daughter, Elizabeth, is born.
1855 Melville publishes Israel Potter. Frances, his second daughter and last child, is born.
1856 Melville publishes The Piazza Tales, a collection of short stories. At the point of mental and physical collapse, he travels in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Lands.
1857 Melville’s The Confidence Man is published while he is out of the country. He launches a three-year stint as a lecturer.
1863 Melville sells Arrowhead and returns to New York City.
1866 Melville publishes Battle Pieces, the first of his poetic works, and accepts a job as customs inspector for the Port of New York. Malcolm dies of a self-inflicted pistol wound.
1869 Stanwix goes to sea.
1876 Melville publishes Clarel.
1886 Stanwix Melville dies of tuberculosis in San Francisco.
1888 Melville publishes John Marr and Other Sailors and begins writing Billy Budd on November 16.
1891 Melville publishes Timoleon, then completes the manuscript for Billy Budd on April 19 and dies of a heart attack on September 28.
1924 Raymond Weaver is instrumental in the publication of Billy Budd.
