Most Popular Books by Clarence Darrow

The Story of my Life is an autobiography by Clarence Darrow. Darrow was an American attorney who became famed during the early 20th century for his contribution in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was also a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Courtroom summations by “one of America’s greatest lawyers . . . this book is better than an entire college course in Rhetoric” (Thomas Geoghegan, author of The Secret Lives of Citizens and Only One Thing Can Save Us). A famous defender of the underdog, the oppressed, and the powerless, Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) is one of the true legends of the American legal system. His cases were many and various, but all were marked by his unequivocal sense of justice, as well as his penchant for representing infamous and unpopular clients, such as the Chicago thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb; Ossian Sweet, the African American doctor charged with murder after fighting off a violent, white mob in Detroit; and John T. Scopes, the teacher on trial in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. Published for the first time in 1957, Attorney for the Damned collects Darrow’s most influential summations and supplements them with scene-setting explanations and comprehensive notes by Arthur Weinberg. Darrow confronts issues that remain relevant over half a century after his death: First Amendment rights, capital punishment, and the separation of church and state. With an insightful forward by Justice William O. Douglas, this volume serves as a powerful reminder of Darrow’s relevance today. “Clarence Darrow [was] perhaps the most effective courtroom opponent of cant, bigotry, and special privilege that our country has produced . . . The ghastly comedy of his deadpan interrogation of William Jennings Bryan on the origin of man in the Scopes case is particularly recommended.” —The New Yorker “More illuminating as well as more dramatic than anything that has yet appeared about [Darrow].” —Herald Tribune Book Review

Closing Arguments: Clarence Darrow on Religion, Law, and Society collects, for the first time, Darrow''s thoughts on his three main preoccupations. The effect reveals a carefully conceived philosophy, expressed with delightful pungency and clarity. The provocative content of these writings still challenges us. His thoughts on social issues, especially on the dangers of religious fundamentalism, are uncannily prescient. A dry and even misanthropic humor lightens his essays, and his reflections on himself and his philosophy reveal a quiet dignity at the core of a man better known for provoking Americans during an era of unprecedented tumult. From the wry "Is the Human Race Getting Anywhere," to the scornful "Patriotism," and his elegaic summing up, "At Seventy-Two," Darrow''s writing still stimulates and pleases. Darrow, son of a village undertaker and coffinmaker, rose to become one of America''s greatest attorneys—and surely its most famous. The Ohio native gained fame for being at the center of momentous trials, including his 1924 defense of Leopold and Loeb and his defense of Darwinian principles in the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial." Some have traced Darrow''s lifelong campaign against capital punishment to his boyhood terror at seeing a Civil War soldier buried—and no client of Darrow''s was ever executed, not even black men who were charged with murder for defending themselves against a white mob. A rebel who always sided intellectually and emotionally with the minority, Darrow remains a figure to contend with sixty-seven years after his death. "Inside every lawyer is the wreck of a poet," Darrow once said. Closing Arguments demonstrates that, in his case, that statement is true.

This volume presents a selection of 500 letters by Clarence Darrow, the pre-eminent courtroom lawyer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Randall Tietjen selected these letters from over 2,200 letters in archives around the country, as well as from one remarkable findÑthe kind of thing historians dream about: a cache of about 330 letters by Darrow hidden away in the basement of DarrowÕs granddaughterÕs house. This collection provides the first scholarly edition of DarrowÕs letters, expertly annotated and including a large amount of previously unknown material and hard-to-locate letters. Because Darrow was a gifted writer and led a fascinating life, the letters are a delight to read. This volume also presents a major introduction by the editor, along with a chronology of DarrowÕs life, and brief biographical sketches of the important individuals who appear in the letters.

True-crime fans and readers interested in the history of American jurisprudence should definitely add Crime: Its Cause and Treatment to their must-read list. Penned by famed lawyer Clarence Darrow, this penetrating look at the origins of criminal behavior draws on Darrow''s own experiences defending such infamous characters as the teenage thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb.

The celebrated American lawyer Clarence Darrow was renowned for his spirited, ruthlessly logical defense of populist causes and controversial ideas. Even today, Darrow’s words continue to frame public discussion about our civil liberties and our religious and civic life. In this timely volume, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson and ethicist Jack Marshall assemble a broad and rich collection of the iconic lawyer’s words and writings–opening statements, trial arguments, lectures–accompanied by excerpts from his memoir and annotated with expert commentary. These selections showcase the mesmerizing power of Darrow’s passions and ideals, which have lost none of their impact or immediacy with the passage of time.

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to injure the business of the Paine Lumber Company and were tried in the Municipal Court of Oshkosh.

Clarence Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union. The three essays included here are Facing Life Fearlessly, Absurdities Of The Bible, and Why I Am An Agnostic.

I feel very grateful to you for the warmth and earnestness of your reception. It makes me feel sure that I am amongst friends. If I had to be tried again, I would not mind taking a change of venue to Portland (applause); although I think I can get along where I am without much difficulty. The subject for tonight''s talk was not chosen by me but was chosen for me. I don''t know who chose it, nor just what they expected me to say, but there is not much in a name, and I suppose what I say tonight would be just about the same under any title that anybody saw fit to give. I am told that I am going to talk about "Industrial Conspiracies." I ought to know something about them. And I won''t tell you all I know tonight, but I will tell you some things that I know tonight. The conspiracy laws, you know, are very old. As one prominent laboring man said on the witness stand down in Los Angeles a few weeks ago when they asked him if he was not under indictment and what for, he said he was under indictment for the charge they always made against working men when they hadn''t done anything-conspiracy. And that is the charge they always make. It is the one they have always made against everybody when they wanted them, and particularly against working men, because they want them oftener than they do anybody else.

"In these wide-ranging essays, Darrow attacks beliefs in the inerrancy of the Bible, the immortality of the soul, miracles, and heaven as being completely at odds with human experience and science. The life best lived, Darrow contends, is one that is ruled by reason, uncluttered by dogmatism, and aided by compassion for our fellow human beings." -- Publisher''s description

His address to the jury at his trial, with a brief history of the events that led up to the trial.