Feast Day of the Cannibals

In the sixth stand—alone book in The American Novels series, Shelby Ross, a merchant ruined by the depression of 1873–79, is hired as a New York City Custom House appraiser under inspector Herman Melville, the embittered, forgotten author of Moby—Dick. On the docks, Ross befriends a genial young man and makes an enemy of a despicable one, who attempts to destroy the...