Monday, April 14
Another review of Bruce Murphy's well received and iconoclastic biography of William Douglas, Wild Bill. This review by Edward Lazarus adds little to Richard Posner's review in the New Republic, but the personal failings of Justice Douglas are so breathtaking that they deserve repeating. Just one highlight from Lazarus's review:
Douglas' failure as a human being had few limits. He was a horrible father, abused his law clerks, alienated his colleagues, drank to excess, wallowed in self-pity and ranted like a spoiled child. So it was that Douglas died in 1975 bitter, frustrated and mostly alone.
On all these points, Murphy's portrait is largely convincing.
Ouch.