Lawyer House Trivia

Everyone's been working mighty hard of late; lots of serious work going on in the 1L classes and in the faculty offices, too.  And we've had a lot of sad and tragic news -- the passing of Richard Nagareda, Rhys Isaac, and now Louis Henkin.  

It's time for a break and something less serious, like lawyer house trivia.

What famous lawyer owned the house at right?  Here are a couple of hints.  The house is in Richmond, Virginia.   Its owner was an important antebellum lawyer and he was also a novelist and, sort of, historian.  In fact he wrote a famous work of "history" in this house.  I put "history" in quotes because it's sort of unclear how much of the "history" was fact and how much fiction.

Comments

[Tim Zinnecker]

Is the author's middle initial an "M"?

[Alfred Brophy]

Don't know about that, Tim. I'm don't know what his middle name was. Seems like he went by only first and last name.

[Tim Zinnecker]

OK, how about this: is the first letter of the third word of the book title a "T"?

[Alfred Brophy]

Let me think on this some, Tim. The first letter of the fourth word in the novel's title is "t", but perhaps you're looking at an alternative title.

[Matt]

If the author's head were removed, would it fit in a breadbox?
(I'm sorry- this just started to seem like "20 questions", and in my experience, in that game it's essential to ask about whether something would fit in a breadbox or not, and this was the best I could do.)

[Alfred Brophy]

I think I need to put out another hint. This may give it away but so be it: he served as attorney general.

[Jason Mazzone]

William Writ.

[Jason Mazzone]

Wirt, not Writ.

[Alfred Brophy]

Yes! Jason. You're right. Very nicely down. Wirt was the author of Letters of a British Spy, as well as The Life of Patrick Henry. And -- though I didn't want to use this as one of the hints because it might have given away too much -- also a literary address at Rutgers.