little help?

[winterbadger]

OK, literary bods, I can't remember. Who was the 19th century American writer who did most of his work while whiling away dull hours in a government job in Washington? It's killing me that (a) I can't remember and (b) I can't figure out how to Google/Wikipedia it.

Comments

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Would this be the chap you're after?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne

[winterbadger]

It *might* be, but I had a feeling it was someone who held an appointment in Washington. I may be wrong...

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Herman Melville? He lived a sailor's life, of course, but then spent twenty years in, er, sorry, New York.

If you still can't find it I can ask the Victorian list.

[winterbadger]

You know, at first I thought it was. But the more I think about it, it may have been Walt Whitman I was thinking of.