4 JANUARY 1997, page 32

Not To Be Damned By Dollars

Elizabeth Lowry HERMAN MELVILLE, VOLUME I, 1819-1851 by Hershel Parker Johns Hopkins, £27.50, pp. 941 M elville biographies are like whales: the bulkier the animal, the more......

Going For Gongs

David Hare HENRIK IBSEN A particularly disturbing story about writing concerns Robert Lowell, who was once asked what he did when he was stuck in the middle of a poem. He said......