Moby Dick (Moby-Dick, or, The Whale Moby-Dick or Sperm) is a novel by American writer Herman Melville published in 1851, whose title comes from the nickname given to a great white whale in the center of the plot. Melville, who was also sailor, like most of the heroes of his novels, is inspired by real events: Sperm whales continued all wore name. Ref. needed] the sinking of the whaling ship Essex, which sank in 1820 after facing a large sperm whale 3,700 miles off the coast of South America. One of the surviving sailors, Owen Chase, consigned this adventure in a book which appeared in 1821. The existence of a white whale, in the 1830s, often seen near the Chilean island of Mocha. Riddled with harpoons, Mocha Dick regularly attacked whalers. But unlike the drama of Essex, no hint in the novel or in the correspondence of the author authenticates this reference, despite testing JN Reynolds called Mocha Dick or The White Whale of the Pacific (1838). Writing the book was begun in 1850 The novel was first published in London in October 1851 under the title The Whale (The Sperm) -. Edition was incomplete and that the title was not the one intended by Melville. It is shortly after, when its U.S. release in November of the same year, the book became known as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (Moby-Dick or Sperm)