There is something of a
boom going on these days in Melville studies, with Kelley's book and
at least half a dozen other major academic monographs appearing from university presses, and with two new
full - length biographies published last year: Laurie Robertson - Lorant's relatively unimportant but informative Melville: A Biography (Potter, 752 pages,, $ 40) and the first
volume of the endlessly detailed Herman Melville (Johns Hopkins University Press, 941 pages,, $ 39.95) by Hershel Parker, the grand old man of Melville studies.