Bartleby the Scrivener

I was looking through a discussion of various authors and their writings yesterday when I came across a reference to Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville. I remembered sitting in Mr. Melville's pew in the seaman's bethel in New Bedford and feeling some of his spirit. I was also intrigued with a story about a scrivener, which literally means a copier or writer. He spent his days copying financial records when he "preferred" to do so. Apparently a very mysterious life lay behind his public persona. I sometimes wonder what lies within the lives of people we deal with as we need to and then tend to dismiss and take for granted.

(Photo- Window in the Tower of London)