NP review of Melville bio

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48361-2002Jun13.html

[...] The last 40 years of Melville's life trace a pattern of decline into
relative obscurity and domestic misery. His wife's family regarded him as
insane. There was talk of a legal separation. His eldest son committed
suicide. He failed in a lobbying campaign to get an appointment as American
consul in some European or South Seas post. [...]