It seems to have been decreed that there are two broad groups into which all literature, and hence, all writers, must fall, the Realistic and the Romantic. In contrast to the romancer who creates a vision or interpretation of a life rarely attained by man in reality, minimizing or ignoring those phases of life which are sordid or distasteful, the realist attempts to render life as it actually is, pleasant or unpleasant. With these points in mind, the following study, dealing with his work as a whole, the novels, novelettes, short stories, and poetry, proposes to define Herman Melville as being basically a Realist, as opposed to Romanticist, in thought, philosophy, and work.