Books with title Billy Budd

Sailor (1924) is a novella begun in November 1888 by American author Herman Melville, left unfinished at his death in 1891, and published in 1924. It was acclaimed by British critics as a masterpiece when published in London, and quickly took its place among the canon of significant works in the United States. The novella was discovered in manuscript form in 1919 by Raymond M. Weaver, who was studying Melville's papers as his first biographer.[1] Melville's widow had begun to edit the manuscript, but had not been able to decide her husband's intentions at several key points or even to see his intended title. Poor transcription and misinterpretation of Melville's notes marred the first published versions of the text. After several years of study, Harrison Hayford and Merton M. Sealts, Jr. published what is now considered the best transcription and critical reading text in 1962.