SOURCE: Richman, Robert. “The Saddest Story.” American Scholar 53, no. 2 (spring 1984): 266-74.

In the following review of Robert Lowell, Richman applauds Hamilton's extensive research into primary sources, but criticizes him for failing to adequately examine Lowell's intellectual development.

Given the relish these days for scandalous life over honorable art, it should come as no surprise that Ian Hamilton's biography of the American poet Robert Lowell has attracted far more attention than any of the poet's books ever did. Considering the space that has been granted to this book by the sundry publications that normally act as if poetry, like some species of dinosaur, does not exist, we are confronted once again with the priorities of the reading public. Poetry is simply not read, at least not nearly as often as the story of a poet's life, even if the poetry contains, as many of Lowell's “confessional” works did, some...