8. Herman Melville’s Isle of the Cross is believed to have been destroyed by the American novelist following rejection by publishers
One of the most acclaimed novelists and poets of the American Renaissance, Herman Melville is best remembered for his romantic account of his experiences of Polynesian life in Typee and for his universally celebrated whaling epic Moby Dick. However, although today recognized as one of the greatest novels ever written, upon publication in 1851 Moby Dick was not well received by Melville’s contemporaries and was a commercial failure. Believed to have penned Isle of the Cross just two years later, it is thought New York publishers Harper & Brothers rejected the manuscript out of concern for another loss-making venture.
Recounting the story of Agatha Hatch Robertson, a Nantucket woman who had cared for a shipwrecked sailor, bore his children, and was subsequently abandoned by the man she saved, the novel would have been Melville’s only piece to present a female central character. Exploring nuanced themes from a new perspective for the talented author, what precisely became of the manuscript is unclear. Whilst some scholars claim it never existed, or that Melville incorporated it into other works, the most likely and accepted opinion is that the discouraged and frustrated author simply destroyed his work in despair.