Unending fight to save very sick author (8)
I believe the answer is:
melville
'author' is the definition.
(Melville is an example)
'unending fight to save very sick' is the wordplay.
'unending fight' becomes 'mele' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to save' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'very' becomes 'v' (abbreviation).
'sick' becomes 'ill' (synonyms).
'v'+'ill'='vill'
'mele' enclosing 'vill' is 'MELVILLE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for melville that I've seen before include "Herman --, author of Moby-Dick" , "Herman --, author of Moby Dick" , "Writer of Moby Dick" , "Herman ........ wrote ''Moby Dick''" , "Creator of Dick" .)