Renowned actor Stephen Collins returns to Patten Free Library as Herman Melville. The show “Sailing towards My Father” by Carl A. Rossi is a one-man play about Herman Melville, the 19th century writer best known for his whaling epic Moby-Dick. The play explores his complex relationships with his family and friends, God and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Herman Melville was born 200 years ago on August 1, 1819. He was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best-known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851).