On this day in 1851, Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, was published by Harper & Brothers in New York. Moby-Dick is considered a great American classic and the book contains one of the greatest and most famous opening lines in fiction: “Call me Ishmael.” Initially, though, the book about Captain Ahab and his quest to kill the giant white whale was a flop.

Herman Melville, the author of Moby-Dick, was born in New York City in 1819. In his early years, he spent his time in the merchant marines, the U.S. Navy, and on a whaling ship in the South Seas. Melville published his first novel in 1846, named Typee. It was a romantic adventure story based on his experiences when he had traveled to Polynesia. The book was a big success and the sequel, Omoo, was published in 1847. Three more novels later, Melville’s sixth book, Moby-Dick, was first published in three volumes on October 1851 in London. The collection of volumes, titled The Whale, was published in the U.S. a month later. Although Melville had promised his publisher an adventure story similar to his popular earlier works, Moby-Dick was a tragic epic. This change was influenced in part by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville’s friend and neighbor from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, whose novels include The Scarlet Letter.

After Moby-Dick’s disappointing reception, Melville continued to produce novels, short stories (such as Bartleby), and poetry. However, writing wasn’t paying the bills, so in 1865 he returned to New York to work as a customs inspector, a job he held for 20 years.