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Biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Name: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Birth Date: March 8, 1841 Death Date: March 6, 1935 Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: jurist, legal writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. As a jurist and a legal writer, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), contributed mightily to the debate in the early 20th century concerning the role of law in a rapidly changing America.The U.S. government is based on a document written in 1787, the Constitution, and an issue almost from the beginning of the new nation was the extent to which the demands of an ever-changing society could be encompassed within this structure. Few men played a more important role in this discourse than Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Not only did he personally contribute to the debate, but he also served as a symbol to a generation of legal and political thinkers.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was born in Boston, Mass., on March 8, 1841, into one of the city's most illustrious families. His father, Oliver Wendell Holmes, among the leading medical practitioners of his day, was also a writer and wit, famous …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…A source for Holmes's own writings is Max Lerner, ed., The Mind and Faith of Justice Holmes: His Speeches, Essays, Letters, and Judicial Opinions, which also contains Lerner's important introduction to Holmes. Catherine Drinker Bowen, Yankee from Olympus: Justice Holmes and His Family (1944), is a popular biography that has had a great public impact. Mark DeWolfe Howe completed two volumes of the definitive scholarly biography before his death; Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: The Shaping Years, 1841-1870 (1957) and The Proving Years, 1870-1882 (1963). Felix Frankfurter, Mr. Justice Holmes and the Supreme Court (1938; 2d ed. 1961), is a laudatory assessment of Holmes. For specific treatment of Holmes's judicial career see Samuel J. Konefsky, The Legacy of Holmes and Brandeis: A Study in the Influence of Ideas (1956). Recommended for general background are Eric F. Goldman, Rendezvous with Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform (1952; rev. ed. abr. 1956), and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Roosevelt, vol. 1 (1957). |