Philip H says:
A new book from the historian/researcher memoir category is Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative by Hershel Parker. This history of writing biographies sounds fascinating:
http://www.amazon.com/Melville-Biography-Narrative-Hershel-Parker/dp/0810127091/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357271305&sr=1-1&keywords=melville+biography+an+inside+narrative
Now, this makes it look as if the reception of MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE might be fun. It was a very good sign that the NEW YORKER blog listed it as a book to watch for in January and ended with this heartwarming sentence: "Parker writes with a rare combination of humor and passion that hooks the reader into this potentially arcane subject." Only someone who has been lied about repeatedly, as in the accusation that I invented the book Melville completed in 1860, POEMS (something everyone had known about since 1922)--only someone whose two-volume biography had been comprehensively and repeatedly lied about can understand my hope for a better reception now that print reviewing is dying and real readers, reviewers, and critics are coming up on the Internet.
http://www.amazon.com/Melville-Biography-Narrative-Hershel-Parker/dp/0810127091/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357271305&sr=1-1&keywords=melville+biography+an+inside+narrative
Now, this makes it look as if the reception of MELVILLE BIOGRAPHY: AN INSIDE NARRATIVE might be fun. It was a very good sign that the NEW YORKER blog listed it as a book to watch for in January and ended with this heartwarming sentence: "Parker writes with a rare combination of humor and passion that hooks the reader into this potentially arcane subject." Only someone who has been lied about repeatedly, as in the accusation that I invented the book Melville completed in 1860, POEMS (something everyone had known about since 1922)--only someone whose two-volume biography had been comprehensively and repeatedly lied about can understand my hope for a better reception now that print reviewing is dying and real readers, reviewers, and critics are coming up on the Internet.
