Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 May 19, 1864) was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works is his magnum opus, Moby-Dick (1851), and Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences of Polynesian life. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.