<p>&ldquo;Billy Budd&rdquo; is the final work of American author Herman Melville which was discovered amongst his papers three decades after his death and first published in Raymond Weaver&rsquo;s 1924 edition of &ldquo;The Collected Works of Melville.&rdquo; The emergence of that collection as well as Weaver&rsquo;s 1921 biography, &ldquo;Herman Melville: Man, Mariner and Mystic&rdquo;, sparked a revival of interest in the forgotten writer. Despite the complex and incomplete nature of the manuscript excitement arose around this &ldquo;new&rdquo; Melville work when it was first discovered. The novel is concerned with its titular character, Billy Budd, a navy sailor accused of mutiny by a fellow officer, who immediately strikes his accuser dead, followed quickly by a trial, conviction and execution. The story stemmed from Melville&rsquo;s interest in an 1888 article called &ldquo;The Mutiny on the Somers,&rdquo; concerning three sailors who in 1842 had been convicted of mutiny. Presented here in this volume is Weaver&rsquo;s original 1924 edition, a first of many attempts to piece together and refine the sometimes illegible text, which included questionable additions and omissions made by Melville&rsquo;s wife after his death. Also included in this collection are the following tales: &ldquo;The Piazza&rdquo;, &ldquo;Bartleby: The Scrivener&rdquo;, &ldquo;Benito Cereno&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Lightning-Rod Man&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Encantadas&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Bell-Tower&rdquo;, and &ldquo;The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids&rdquo;. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.</p>