Bartleby, the Scrivener (Heathen Short)

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American author and poet of the American Renaissance period. In 1853, he serialized his short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" in two parts in Putnam's Magazine, then collected it in his 1856 work The Piazza Tales. As the story comes into focus, Bartleby arrives as a cipher - silent, spectral, and slipping out of register with the world around him. His famous refrain, "I would prefer not to," signals his slow withdrawal from the bala...