How much do we need to know about the lives of writers to appreciate their work? Is the life all — or is it nothing? Should we read poetry, for example, with an eye on biography, or merely focus on ...

Howe said that part of Eliot’s appeal was his biography: a shabby-genteel banker from St. Louis ups and moves to the world capital of London and redefines himself as—though I normally shudder to use ...