
Some men speak for one generation alone, and their voices fade with time, but the words of a man like Oliver Wendell Holmes loom louder and stronger as the years pass. in this volume, skillfully edited by Max Lerner, the essays, letters, speeches, and judicial opinions are gathered to present a full portrait of a great chief justice of the United States Supreme Court and — even more inspiringly — a remarkable man whose life spanned our history from the Civil War to the 1930's. No greater champion of human dignity and civil liberty ever occupied high office, and though "the Great Dissenter" fought many hard and lonely battles, the years have placed him not against the tide, but ahead of it.