Clarence Darrow: attorney for the damned

(Paperback, New edition)

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Clarence Darrow is the lawyer every law school student dreams of being: on the side of right, loved by many women, played by Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind. His days-long closing arguments delivered without notes won miraculous reprieves for men doomed to hang. Darrow left a promising career as a railroad lawyer during the tumultuous Gilded Age in order to champion poor workers, blacks, and social and political outcasts against big business, Jim Crow, and corrupt officials. He became famous defending union leader Eugene Debs in the landmark Pullman Strike case and went from one headline case to the next - until he was nearly crushed by an indictment for bribing a jury. He redeemed himself in Dayton, Tennessee, defending schoolteacher John Scopes in the 'Monkey Trial', cementing his place in history. Now, John A. Farrell draws on previously unpublished correspondence and memoirs to offer a candid account of Darrow's divorce, affairs, and disastrous finances; new details of his feud with his law partner, the famous poet Edgar Lee Masters; a shocking disclosure about one of his most controversial cases; and explosive revelations of shady tactics he used in his own trial for bribery. Clarence Darrow is a sweeping, surprising portrait of a legendary legal mind.

Reviews

In mining a rich vein of newly uncovered sources, he [Farrell] has created what is arguably Darrow's definitive portrait.

* Adelaide Advertiser *

Farrell offers excerpts from Darrows magnificent courtroom arguments as well as delicious details of his personal life (he was a hearty participant in the eras free love movement). [He] gleans from previously undisclosed material to offer a completely engaging portrait of a flawed man of noble ideals.

* Booklist (starred review) *

Attorney for the Damned is a must read for anyone interested in the art of lawyering.

* Courier Mail *

John Farrells Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned is a riveting historical drama filled with strange twists and turns. Every page is a triumph of scholarship. A marvelous biography!

-- Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America

A comprehensive biography of the storied defense attorney. Making elaborate use of transcripts, observers accounts, correspondence and newspaper reports, Farrell chronicles Darrows most celebrated trials in detail These cases including two in which Darrow, almost surely guilty, was himself tried for jury tampering dominate the narrative, but Farrell neatly places them within the larger context of this complicated mans crowded life and practice Farrell unflinchingly addresses [Darrows] shortcomings, even as he underscores the genuine brilliance of a still-unmatched advocate for underdogs everywhere.

* Kirkus (starred review) *

100 Most Notable Books 2011

* New York Times *

John A. Farrell, in Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned, goes farther into the archives and deeper into Darrows crags.

* New Yorker *

The portrait that emerges is of a complex idealist, a big-picture life lived out on the stage of the courtroom PICK OF THE WEEK

* Saturday Age *

His [Darrows] life story was epic in its sweep and influence It is stirringly retold in Farrell's timely, balanced and important book.

* Weekend Australian *

This book is a joy and revelation. It is at once a rollicking tour through the mind of a legal genius and a spellbinding account of some of the most famous cases in American history. The chapter on Leopold and Loeb alone is worth waiting in line to get a seat in Jack Farrells courtroom.

-- David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered and They Marched into Sunlight

People want heroes. But history demands truth. This gritty biography demystifies a deeply flawed legal hero, who almost assuredly bribed jurors and witnesses in order to level the playing field against the rich and powerful. Darrow was a giant of his corrupt times. His biography is a must read for all Americans who care about both the means and ends of justice!

-- Alan M. Dershowitz, author of The Trials of Zion

It is almost impossible to conceive how so much living could have come in just one life, and Jack Farrells masterful new biography makes Clarence Darrow come alive. This is a wonderful, at times heart-pounding story, which is told with precision, sympathy, and insight.

-- Ken Burns

Clarence Darrow confounded titles: he was a freethinker, hedonist, anarchist, populist, infidel, cynic and master storyteller who became our greatest lawyer and a folk hero. Farrells masterful, sweeping new biography not only does justice to all his roles but joyously satisfies even a Darrow addict like me.

-- Roy Black, Esq., criminal defense attorney

His name remains a legend. And in this new book, John Farrell explains why, weaving a tale as compelling and clever as one of Darrows bewitching courtroom speeches for the defense.

-- The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG, Justice of the High Court of Australia (19962009)

This new biography is a balanced account of a complex man, written with a great gift of story-telling. It sets Darrows battles in their rich historical setting, and brings him vividly to life. I hope that it helps keep alive the memory of a lawyer who, at his best, was a model for all lawyers to emulate.

-- Julian Burnside QC

Author Bio

John A. Farrell is the author of Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, and Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century, which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post Rave of the Year. As a longtime journalist at The Boston Globe, he worked as White House correspondent, Washington editor, and investigative reporter on the vaunted Spotlight team. His award-winning portrait of Nixon was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography, and earned him the title of American Historian Laureate from the New York Historical Society. Julian Burnside, QC, is an Australian barrister who specialises in commercial litigation and is also deeply involved in human-rights work, in particular in relation to refugees. He is a former president of Liberty Victoria, and is also passionately involved in the arts: he is the chair of Melbourne arts venue fortyfivedownstairs, and regularly commissions music. He has published a childrens book, Matilda and the Dragon, as well as Wordwatching, a collection of essays on the uses and abuses of the English language, and Watching Brief: reflections on human rights, law, and justice.