The Essential Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., has been called the greatest jurist and legal scholar in the history of the English-speaking world--towering, brilliant, profound. His speeches, opinions, and letters rank among the most powerful documents of American political and intellectual life. By gathering a rich selection of writings in one volume, Richard A. Posner reveals Holmes in the fullness of his achievement as judge, historian, philosopher, belletrist, and master of English.

Style. Although interest in Holmes appears on the rise of late--biographies and studies of his thought are flourishing--little of his actual writing is readily available; the bulk of Holmes's 10,000 personal letters, 2,000 judicial opinions, and numerous speeches and essays have remained unpublished. This anthology, which spans the half-century from 1881, when The Common Law was published, through his Supreme Court appointment in 1902, to the early 1930s, charts the.

Interplay between Holmes's temperament and the social and intellectual struggles of his times. Thematically arranged, the volume moves from general to specific and covers a rich variety of subjects from aging and death to themes in politics, personalities, and law. Posner's substantial introduction firmly places this wealth of material in its proper biographical and historical context. Destined to become the standard one-volume edition of Holmes's writings, this.

Anthology reveals Holmes not only as a great jurist and intellectual, but as a preeminent figure in American thought, sensibility, and expression.