India, Oct. 27 -- "Call me Ishmael" is one of the most recognisable opening lines in literature. But when Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, came out in 1851, it wasn't immediately successful. It sold poorly, got mixed reviews, and did nothing to revive Melville's declining reputation. By the time he died in 1891, he and the book were largely forgotten. It took decades for that to change.

How did a book that failed in its own day become one of the most studied and admired novels in American literature? The Moby-Dick that appeared in October 1851 had grown far beyond the sea adventure Melville first set out to write. He had written and rewritten it, drawing on his own experiences at sea, on the books he had read about whales and ...