were at that time and subsequently residents of Albany, N.Y.

Herman Melville was born in New York on August 1,1819, and
received his early education in that city. There he imbibed his
first love of adventure, listening, as be says in 'Redburn,'
while his father 'of winter evenings, by the well-remembered
sea-coal fire in old Greenwich Street, used to tell my brother
and me of the monstrous waves at sea, mountain high, of the masts
bending like twigs, and all about Havre and Liverpool.' The
death of his father in reduced circumstances necessitated the
removal of his mother and the family of eight brothers and
sisters to the village of Lansingburg, on the Hudson River.
There Herman remained until 1835, when he attended the Albany
Classical School for some months. Dr. Charles E. West, the
well-known Brooklyn educator, was then in charge of the school,
and remembers the lad's deftness in English composition, and his
struggles with mathematics.

The following year was passed at Pittsfield, Mass., where he
engaged in work on his uncle's farm, long known as the 'Van
Schaack place.' This uncle was Thomas Melville, president of the
Berkshire Agricultural Society, and a successful gentleman
farmer.

Herman's roving disposition, and a desire to support himself
independently of family assistance, soon led him to ship as cabin
boy in a New York vessel bound for Liverpool. He made the
voyage, visited London, and returned in the same ship. 'Redburn:
His First Voyage,' published in 1849, is partly founded on the
experiences of this trip, which was undertaken with the full