After attempting to fit whole worlds into Mardi and being soundly rebuked by the public that had eaten up Typee and Omoo, Melville decided that in order to make some money again he would write Redburn and White-Jacket, and make them less crazy.

He does discipline himself dramatically in Redburn. It’s another semi-autobiographical novel, [...]

Melville’s first three books all begin with a sailorly transgression on the part of the narrator(/Melville figure). In Typee, which I knew to be at least somewhat autobiographical, I was so taken aback by the fact that it began with a runaway I had to immediately check whether that part was accurate (it was). [...]