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Yankee from Olympus: Justice Holmes and His Family
Biography of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes by best-selling (and award-winning) author Catherine Drinker Bowen
455 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1944
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238 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Drinker Bowen
76 books19 followersCatherine Drinker Bowen was born as Catherine Drinker on the Haverford College campus on January 1, 1897, to a prominent Quaker family. She was an accomplished violinist who studied for a musical career at the Peabody Institute and the Juilliard School of Music, but ultimately decided to become a writer. She had no formal writing education and no academic career, but became a bestselling American biographer and writer despite criticism from academics. Her earliest biographies were about musicians. Bowen did all her own research, without hiring research assistants, and sometimes took the controversial step of interviewing subjects without taking notes.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 14, 2021
I read a paperback copy of this 1944 biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in high school, fifty years ago. It helped confirm my plan to be a lawyer.
Rereading it all these years later I was struck by what an unusual biography it is. Holmes lived to be 93 years old. The last forty years of his life he was the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and then sat as a justice of the United States Supreme Court. He retired as the oldest Justice ever to serve. He wrote 100s of opinions and dissents on the most important issues of the day.
The first half of this book, over 200 pages, gets OWH Jr to the age of 23. His 30 years on the Supreme Court get covered in the last sixty pages.
The subtitle is accurate. This book is about the effect of family on OWH Jr. Bowen starts with his Grandfather, the Reverend Albiel Holmes. He was a prominent preacher in Cambridge. He was a strict theologian who had no use for the new fangled Unitarianism. Bowen lays out Albiel"s commitment to ideas and intellectual rigor which his grandson inherited.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. , known as Doctor Holmes, was completely unlike his father and his son. Doctor Holmes was an accomplished medical doctor who taught at Harvard Medical School for years, but his true calling was as a famous author. He was a poet, essayist and novelist. His works were best sellers and his "Autocrat at the Breakfast Table" series of light essays made him famous. He was a big celebrity in America and Europe. Doctor Holmes was a very funny, talkative fellow who needed to be the center of attention. He loved praise. He told the same stories over and over and laughed at his own jokes. He went through life thinking of how he could write a good piece about whatever was happening. He would have adored Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
Doctor Holmes drove his son OWH Jr. crazy. OWH Jr. was an extremely serious young man. He was devoted to studying the largest questions of philosophy and law. He was embarrassed by his father's notoriety and buffoonery. His mother, and then his wife, tried to keep the peace between father and son, but Doctor Holmes had an incredible ability to annoy him.
Holmes volunteered in the Civil War. He suffered three serious wounds. He was shot through the abdomen, in his neck and through his foot. The first two times he recuperated and went back to war.
The worst thing Doctor Holmes ever did to him was when he was shot in the neck at the Battle of Antietam. The Doctor rushed down from Boston and spent ten days frantically trying to find his son. They were eventually re-united and came home together on the train from Philadelphia to Boston.
That wasn't annoying. What was annoying was that Doctor Holmes immediately published an article in "The Atlantic" magazine entitled "My Hunt After The Captain". It was hugely popular. It was one of the popular things ever written by Doctor Holmes. For the rest of his life people would tell OWH Jr. how excited they were to meet "The Captain." The problem was that OWH Jr. hated the article. He thought it was sentimental, phony and dishonest. He prided himself on his clear eyed view of war and the article was the worst example of the schmaltzy version of war.
Bowen does a wonderful job of showing the effect of the Boston Yankee world on Holmes. His wife Fanny was from the same world. They had a long and very private marriage. Bowen struggles to understand it.
This is an old fashioned biography in the sense that it features recreated scenes told in the present tense. We get a lot of "Wendell was concerned that..." or "Fanny knew that she should be worried by...." Bowen has "A Word About Method" at the end of the book. She says that she did not distort or change the meaning of any statements or conversations quoted in the book but that she "often embellished them." I was OK with that. I trusted her.
Bowen also says that she is not a lawyer and that she makes no claim to analyze or dissect Holmes' opinions. This is not really a book about Judge Holmes. It is a book about how and why Holmes became a Judge. It is still a book that would inspire a young person to believe that the practice of law can be a noble profession.
Rereading it all these years later I was struck by what an unusual biography it is. Holmes lived to be 93 years old. The last forty years of his life he was the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and then sat as a justice of the United States Supreme Court. He retired as the oldest Justice ever to serve. He wrote 100s of opinions and dissents on the most important issues of the day.
The first half of this book, over 200 pages, gets OWH Jr to the age of 23. His 30 years on the Supreme Court get covered in the last sixty pages.
The subtitle is accurate. This book is about the effect of family on OWH Jr. Bowen starts with his Grandfather, the Reverend Albiel Holmes. He was a prominent preacher in Cambridge. He was a strict theologian who had no use for the new fangled Unitarianism. Bowen lays out Albiel"s commitment to ideas and intellectual rigor which his grandson inherited.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. , known as Doctor Holmes, was completely unlike his father and his son. Doctor Holmes was an accomplished medical doctor who taught at Harvard Medical School for years, but his true calling was as a famous author. He was a poet, essayist and novelist. His works were best sellers and his "Autocrat at the Breakfast Table" series of light essays made him famous. He was a big celebrity in America and Europe. Doctor Holmes was a very funny, talkative fellow who needed to be the center of attention. He loved praise. He told the same stories over and over and laughed at his own jokes. He went through life thinking of how he could write a good piece about whatever was happening. He would have adored Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
Doctor Holmes drove his son OWH Jr. crazy. OWH Jr. was an extremely serious young man. He was devoted to studying the largest questions of philosophy and law. He was embarrassed by his father's notoriety and buffoonery. His mother, and then his wife, tried to keep the peace between father and son, but Doctor Holmes had an incredible ability to annoy him.
Holmes volunteered in the Civil War. He suffered three serious wounds. He was shot through the abdomen, in his neck and through his foot. The first two times he recuperated and went back to war.
The worst thing Doctor Holmes ever did to him was when he was shot in the neck at the Battle of Antietam. The Doctor rushed down from Boston and spent ten days frantically trying to find his son. They were eventually re-united and came home together on the train from Philadelphia to Boston.
That wasn't annoying. What was annoying was that Doctor Holmes immediately published an article in "The Atlantic" magazine entitled "My Hunt After The Captain". It was hugely popular. It was one of the popular things ever written by Doctor Holmes. For the rest of his life people would tell OWH Jr. how excited they were to meet "The Captain." The problem was that OWH Jr. hated the article. He thought it was sentimental, phony and dishonest. He prided himself on his clear eyed view of war and the article was the worst example of the schmaltzy version of war.
Bowen does a wonderful job of showing the effect of the Boston Yankee world on Holmes. His wife Fanny was from the same world. They had a long and very private marriage. Bowen struggles to understand it.
This is an old fashioned biography in the sense that it features recreated scenes told in the present tense. We get a lot of "Wendell was concerned that..." or "Fanny knew that she should be worried by...." Bowen has "A Word About Method" at the end of the book. She says that she did not distort or change the meaning of any statements or conversations quoted in the book but that she "often embellished them." I was OK with that. I trusted her.
Bowen also says that she is not a lawyer and that she makes no claim to analyze or dissect Holmes' opinions. This is not really a book about Judge Holmes. It is a book about how and why Holmes became a Judge. It is still a book that would inspire a young person to believe that the practice of law can be a noble profession.
June 30, 2023
A superb biography! I found a boxed copy at a used book shop in the Smoky Mountains last week and spent this week enjoying it. Bowen is more literary than scholarly in her writing, sometimes creating her own settings where her subject’s thoughts can be expressed. But her research and understanding is very deep, and in this book she paints a detailed picture of three generations of strong Holmes men - all difficult to get along with in their own ways but fascination to read about.
July 10, 2014
This is the definitive biography of Justice Holmes. Every lawyer ought to have read it.
April 21, 2022
It is difficult to capture the essence of this book. But I declare it a masterwork despite what I judge to be an “incomplete” comprehension of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. As the subtitle suggests, the author paints a biography of the Holmes family of Boston: three generations of men and their wives and children. Also included are cousins, colleagues, friends, and such details of their everyday lives that the story reads sometimes more like a novel than what we typically expect in a “history.” I accept the accuracy of assumptions, however, because of the extensive citation of sources, many contemporary with the events.
She portrays the upper class social scene of Boston through the nineteenth century: the intertwining of lawyers, professors (from Harvard), journalists, prominent ministers, politicians, and other assorted “intellectuals” that the author never calls snobs but that surely might be so defined on occasion. A nice under story includes more general history of an era that is often overlooked in more direct American history books—what the “people” of Boston thought of two dozen presidents between John Quincy Adams and Calvin Coolidge, and how expanding American industry following the joining of states after the Revolution began to influence legislative controls.
The Civil War years were covered primarily by the personal participation of OWH Jr. in the 20th Massachusetts Regiment. By returning to service duty not once but twice after recovering from serious bullet wounds in several parts of his body, this young man most assuredly proved his physical courage. Following the war, he undertook what would occupy his mind for the remainder of his life, an ongoing study of how civil law can most fairly manage a people’s interaction with one another. Observers have judged this characteristic to be “intellectual courage.”
Yet I was disappointed to not be able to find specific clarity in his thought—and official judgments. He apparently became famous for the “brevity” of his judicial opinions. He dismissed the more prevalent habit among his colleagues for lengthy explanations of why a decision was settled either for or against a case. But even after re-reading some of his direct quotations several times, I often felt unsure of what exactly he “meant” to say. Concluding that such must be my own ignorance about how words were used or how references were aligned, I used the new, new method of historical short cutting and googled him. Turns out that I am not alone in confusion about this famous man. I found arguments for and against his reputation for genius. I even found disputes over what exactly he intended by his own judgments, either in agreement with or dissent from his fellow justices. Sometimes he seemed brave with stated dissents, other times just muddled. As for being “ahead of his time” in philosophical thought, it must be noted that he wrote the majority Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a state’s right to force abortion in a case of presumed mental defect in an unborn child. This case was not covered in the book.
As a reader, I identified most with the wife of the man who would become Justice Holmes. She is said to have once asked his uncle if Wendell had “all his life, professed to care more for ideas than he cares for people?”
Perhaps my greatest appreciation for this book is that it motivated me to re-study a few other prominent characters and events of nineteenth and early twentieth century America.
She portrays the upper class social scene of Boston through the nineteenth century: the intertwining of lawyers, professors (from Harvard), journalists, prominent ministers, politicians, and other assorted “intellectuals” that the author never calls snobs but that surely might be so defined on occasion. A nice under story includes more general history of an era that is often overlooked in more direct American history books—what the “people” of Boston thought of two dozen presidents between John Quincy Adams and Calvin Coolidge, and how expanding American industry following the joining of states after the Revolution began to influence legislative controls.
The Civil War years were covered primarily by the personal participation of OWH Jr. in the 20th Massachusetts Regiment. By returning to service duty not once but twice after recovering from serious bullet wounds in several parts of his body, this young man most assuredly proved his physical courage. Following the war, he undertook what would occupy his mind for the remainder of his life, an ongoing study of how civil law can most fairly manage a people’s interaction with one another. Observers have judged this characteristic to be “intellectual courage.”
Yet I was disappointed to not be able to find specific clarity in his thought—and official judgments. He apparently became famous for the “brevity” of his judicial opinions. He dismissed the more prevalent habit among his colleagues for lengthy explanations of why a decision was settled either for or against a case. But even after re-reading some of his direct quotations several times, I often felt unsure of what exactly he “meant” to say. Concluding that such must be my own ignorance about how words were used or how references were aligned, I used the new, new method of historical short cutting and googled him. Turns out that I am not alone in confusion about this famous man. I found arguments for and against his reputation for genius. I even found disputes over what exactly he intended by his own judgments, either in agreement with or dissent from his fellow justices. Sometimes he seemed brave with stated dissents, other times just muddled. As for being “ahead of his time” in philosophical thought, it must be noted that he wrote the majority Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a state’s right to force abortion in a case of presumed mental defect in an unborn child. This case was not covered in the book.
As a reader, I identified most with the wife of the man who would become Justice Holmes. She is said to have once asked his uncle if Wendell had “all his life, professed to care more for ideas than he cares for people?”
Perhaps my greatest appreciation for this book is that it motivated me to re-study a few other prominent characters and events of nineteenth and early twentieth century America.
February 14, 2019
Honestly, I was hoping for more on the myriad 1st Amendment cases that Holmes oversaw and more on his role (along with some contemporary legal minds) in the evolution of the Incorporation Doctrine post-Lochner, the latter going completely unmentioned. That section if the book was interesting and accurate, but also in some ways an elision of key points and condensed to the final couple of chapters. But, in exchange, I deeply appreciated some of the unexpected ways learning about Holmes and his family, his experiences as a Civil War soldier, his father issues, etc. I came into this bio accidentally, just another old book that somehow snuck into my personal library, and it took me nearly a decade to finally commit to it cover to cover. It only solidified the deep admiration I have for Holmes Jr. If you have any interest in Supreme Court history, Boston history, or the Holmes family, they all overlap in this generally well-written book.
One quick word: I did not bother looking up Catherine Drinker Bowen's credentials. I gather that she was a biographer if other "great men" in US history, and she took care to make endnotes and discuss research methods, which I value greatly. But what I find dubious and what I think could get her laughed out of a History department nowadays (things were different way back when this book was published) is her constant references to the sensory. I just don't think it matters, and I don't see how one could know, what the weather was like or what things looked, smelled, felt, sounded, or tasted like, but this didn't stop her from trying to immerse readers in Holmes's world all the same. Oh well.
One quick word: I did not bother looking up Catherine Drinker Bowen's credentials. I gather that she was a biographer if other "great men" in US history, and she took care to make endnotes and discuss research methods, which I value greatly. But what I find dubious and what I think could get her laughed out of a History department nowadays (things were different way back when this book was published) is her constant references to the sensory. I just don't think it matters, and I don't see how one could know, what the weather was like or what things looked, smelled, felt, sounded, or tasted like, but this didn't stop her from trying to immerse readers in Holmes's world all the same. Oh well.
July 3, 2023
Bowen is one of those biography authors I want to read more of. A few months ago, I read her biography of John Adams, and now I finished her biography of a Supreme Justice from the early 20th century. I enjoy how personal her biographies are, focused more on the personality and personal life of the famous person as opposed to just looking at the politics of their life. A really good book about Holmes and his family!
February 10, 2019
I enjoyed this read! What an excellent opportunity to gain insight into the life of one of our country’s greatest minds and watch him grow from a boy to a soldier to a Justice on our High Court. Worth the read!!
February 12, 2016
This book is a biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and was written about 1944. Some of it is slightly dated now, but on the whole the book is very interesting and informative. It was written not too long after Justice Holmes died, in 1935, so the author had an opportunity to talk to people who knew him, and his work at the Supreme Court was fresh on everyone's mind. It is a very thorough book that covers not only Justice Holmes' life but also that of his grandfather, Rev. Abiel Holmes, and father, the author and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Rev. Abiel Holmes has a Georgia connection in that he pastored at the Midway parish in Georgia during the post-Revolutionary era. This book does not however cover that period as it begins after his return, beginning approximately 1800. Rev. Holmes was the author of one of the first histories of America, called Annals of America. Both he and his son were authors who were very well known during their own lifetimes and there is much material available on them. Rev. Holmes settled in Boston and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. grew up there. OWH Sr. was a popular author and poet of the 19th century, author of The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, and many of his poems were popular to be given to children to memorize. His popularity diminished somewhat in the 20th century. The book goes into a lot of detail about their lives and it was very informative to provide information about their time period. If anything I think there was almost as much or more material about them than there was about Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. The book covers his service in the Civil War (on the Union side) and his early law career and service on the Mass. Supreme Court prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. If anything I would have liked a little bit more discussion about the interpretation, analysis and impact of his Supreme Court decisions. Possibly this was the result of the fact that the book was published not long after his death and the author did not have the benefit of the subsequent analysis that has been made of his Supreme Court decisions.
I think the author's style is slightly antiquated. Though her book appears to be based on documented information, she tries to imagine herself being there in a manner similar to fiction which I felt didn't come off quite as well. However, the book was interesting and easy to read.
I think a good companion book to this is the biography of Conrad Aiken, Poet of White Horse Vale. Both books deal extensively with life in the Boston area and Harvard. This book covers the time period about 1800-1900 and the Conrad Aiken book covers the same environment taking it through about 1900-1930. Conrad Aiken's grandfather, William James Potter, also attended Harvard and he came out of the New England environment. Together I felt the books provided a very interesting portrait of that environment.
In addition, I thought the book was interesting because of its brief discussion of Unitarianism. Recently I have been reading up on the deism of the 18th century and the Unitarianism of the 19th and 20th centuries and this book adds to my understanding. Unitarianism was very popular in Boston and in Harvard during this time period.
I only give it a 3 mostly because I would like a greater amount of analysis about the impact and interpretation of Holmes' court decisions today.
I think the author's style is slightly antiquated. Though her book appears to be based on documented information, she tries to imagine herself being there in a manner similar to fiction which I felt didn't come off quite as well. However, the book was interesting and easy to read.
I think a good companion book to this is the biography of Conrad Aiken, Poet of White Horse Vale. Both books deal extensively with life in the Boston area and Harvard. This book covers the time period about 1800-1900 and the Conrad Aiken book covers the same environment taking it through about 1900-1930. Conrad Aiken's grandfather, William James Potter, also attended Harvard and he came out of the New England environment. Together I felt the books provided a very interesting portrait of that environment.
In addition, I thought the book was interesting because of its brief discussion of Unitarianism. Recently I have been reading up on the deism of the 18th century and the Unitarianism of the 19th and 20th centuries and this book adds to my understanding. Unitarianism was very popular in Boston and in Harvard during this time period.
I only give it a 3 mostly because I would like a greater amount of analysis about the impact and interpretation of Holmes' court decisions today.
February 10, 2017
Remarkable book about a man who had a variety of adventurous life experiences, and had a lasting impact on the country.
"Life is action and passion; therefore, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived."
"To ride boldly at what is in front of you, be it fence or enemy; to pray, not for comfort, but for combat; to remember that duty is not to be proved in the evil day; but then to be obeyed unquestioning; to love glory more than temptation of wallowing ease, but to know that one's final judge and only rival is oneself. For high and dangerous action teaches us to believe as right beyond dispute things for which our doubting minds are slow to find words of proof. Out of heroism grows faith in the worth of heroism. The proof comes later, and even may never come at all."
"We will not falter...We will reach the earthworks if we live, and if we fail we will leave our spirit in those who follow, and they will not turn back. All is ready. Bugler, blow the charge."
"Life is action and passion; therefore, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived."
"To ride boldly at what is in front of you, be it fence or enemy; to pray, not for comfort, but for combat; to remember that duty is not to be proved in the evil day; but then to be obeyed unquestioning; to love glory more than temptation of wallowing ease, but to know that one's final judge and only rival is oneself. For high and dangerous action teaches us to believe as right beyond dispute things for which our doubting minds are slow to find words of proof. Out of heroism grows faith in the worth of heroism. The proof comes later, and even may never come at all."
"We will not falter...We will reach the earthworks if we live, and if we fail we will leave our spirit in those who follow, and they will not turn back. All is ready. Bugler, blow the charge."
October 9, 2016
This is a fine biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, although it was written and published originally in 1944, so the author's biographical techniques may seem a little dated to some readers. The emphasis on Holmes's family seems especially apt, as his history as part of an old New England family and his relationship to his father (Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes) were especially influential. I wish that the author had explained more of the American history surrounding Holmes's life, but that just shows my own ignorance of U.S. history between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the First World War. One warning--this ebook edition was terribly scanned; many words and letters have been replaced by symbols and have to be inferred and the formatting has been scrambled in many places. The publisher should have run this by a proofreader before publishing it, even at a low price.
December 17, 2012
Exhaustive, if not exhausting, biography of one of the greatest American jurists. I'd never read much about Justice Holmes, although I had heard of him and the high regard in which he has been held. Then in reading another book I read the story of the meeting of Holmes and Lincoln, and decided to move this book up on my "to read" list. Tracing Justice Holmes' story from his father through his death in 1935, it is an interesting book, although not an easy read. To get to know someone who met both Lincoln and Roosevelt (and most presidents in between) is worth the effort.
June 29, 2011
This was among my favorite inspirational books when I was a child. I loved (and still love) biography, autobiography, and memoirs, and as I was very young when I read this one it truly made an impression on me. I don't know what I'd think of the book now that I'm much older, but at the time I just fell in love with this book.
April 2, 2008
I read this book in high school and thought it would be pretty cool to be a lawyer. I was also taken by O W Holmes famous father travelling to the town of
sharpesburg to ted to his wounde son who had been shot in the jaw.
sharpesburg to ted to his wounde son who had been shot in the jaw.
January 7, 2015
Very informative and well organized history of Holmes, his father and grandfather. There was not a single page without some interesting bit of information. This was my forth book about the Holmes family and the best so far.
October 21, 2013
Wonderful biography peopled by Boston's highest intellects (mostly Harvard men) and social lions. Good background on Justice Holmes' father, the famed Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and their lifelong conflict. Highly interesting sections relating to Holmes' philosophy of the law.
November 10, 2015
I already knew a lot about Justice Holmes from a legal standpoint. I really liked this book because it also taught me a lot about his family, somewhat famous in their own right. It also presents a very personal view of his participation in the Civil War.
July 22, 2020
I enjoyed learning about Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. more than I expected. His treatise, The Common Law, was an incredibly important step forward for interpreting law on the basis of the Constitution.
May 1, 2009
Yankee From Olympus: Justice Holmes and His Family by Catherine Drinker Bowen (1944)
Currently reading
March 23, 2011Just starting this, recommended by a co-worker.
March 30, 2011
This biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes gave me a look at an interesting man and a new insight to the workings of the Supreme Court.
Read
November 15, 2017Worth reading, of course. But it does not hold a candle to her: The Lion and the Throne.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews