Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life is the first book by American writer
Herman Melville, published first in London, then New York, in 1846. Considered a classic in
travel and adventure literature, the narrative is based on the author's actual experiences as a captive on the island
Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific
Marquesas Islands in 1842, and is liberally supplemented with imaginative reconstruction and adaptation of material from other books. The title is from the name of a valley there called
Tai Pi Vai.
Typee was Melville's most popular work during his lifetime; it made him notorious as the "man who lived among the cannibals".