Melville in Love: The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick - Hardcover

"Riveting in its incandescent sense of discovery, intimacy, and velocity, Shelden's bound-to-be-controversial anatomy of a clandestine love transforms our perception of Melville and introduces "one of the great unsung figures in literary history."--Booklist, Starred Review

"Written with novelistic period detail and peopled with convincingly reanimated historical characters... The book is an engaging and creative recreation."--Publishers Weekly

"MELVILLE IN LOVE is a beautifully written, captivating story that may also be one of the most surprising literary revelations of our time."--BookPage

"Michael Shelden delivers the goods. . . . Now we can understand better the daring and the originality, the stylistic and thematic boldness of Moby-Dick: its writing was fueled and sustained by Melville's passionate connection to a congenial sensibility."--Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife and Sherlock in Love

"Melville in Love is a masterful, riveting piece of literary and biographical detective work. Astute, compelling, and beautifully written, it gives us fascinating new insight into one of America's greatest writers and the alchemy of his enduring art."--Shelley Fisher Fishkin, author of Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain and African American Voices

"Engrossing, original, fast paced, and beautifully written, this is a book that deserves a place on the shelves of anyone interested in Melville and the art of literature."--Bruce Cole, former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities

"A mesmerizing portrait... The hitherto hidden tale of these unconventional lovers is a deep and revelatory pleasure."--Elle

"A proto-feminist woman of letters, impresario and poet in her own right, Morewood strikes us in Shelden's account as a person of imagination and courage straining against the socially imposed constrictions of her time."--The Washington Post

"A masterpiece. . . . He visually escorts the reader into the mindset and emotional life of one of the most renowned literary giants. Without a doubt this biography is capable of captivating generations of readers and writers[and] inspir[ing] them to pursue their own creative endeavors."--New York Journal of Books

"[Shelden] offers a provocative portrait of the canonical writer and his world."--Kirkus