Virginia lawyer and man of letters, Attorney General of the United States, William Wirt enjoyed success as an American practitioner of the Addisonian serial essay. He was also the author of a popular, if not wholly reliable, biography of Patrick Henry.

Wirt was born in Bladensburg, Maryland, in 1772 to Jacob and Henrietta Wirt. Orphaned at age eight, he was raised by an uncle and aunt, who enrolled him in a series of classical grammar schools. This education fostered a passion for literature; by age thirteen he was writing poetry in the manner of Pope. One of Wirt's classmates introduced him to Benjamin Edwards (later a member of Congress), who employed the fifteen-year-old boy as a family tutor, giving him the run of an extensive library. He left this service in 1789 for a legal apprenticeship, and three years later he began a distinguished Virginia practice that would bring him...