Book Review from the December 1953 issue of the Socialist Standard:

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2017/09/about-books-1953.html

Given to Alex 5/6/17

441. Clarence Darrow for the Defense: A Biography, by Irving Stone (read 17 July 1952) On July 12, 1952, I said to myself that this book, which I was reading, had taken a turn for the better. Up till then it was mostly an account of Darrow's views--with many of which I am in total disagreement. But today I read the account (highly biased in Darrow's favor, I suppose) of his defense of Big Bill Haywood, who was accused of conspiring to murder ex-Gov. Frank Steunenberg of Idaho. Steunenberg, who lived his early life in Iowa, was a Democratic governor of Idaho from 1897 to 1901. In 1899 he incurred the enmity of the Miners' Federation because of his bringing in Federal troops to the scene of a strike and said all the members of the Federation were equally guilty and made certain no rival union man could work in Idaho. In December 1905 a bomb was attached to Steunenberg's gate, killing him. Harry Orchard, criminal, did it. But he said three Mine Federation leaders had hired him to do the dastardly deed.. William Borah was special prosecutor. Case citations on the affair are: 12 Ida. 250 and 203 U.S. 192. In June and July 1907 the 80-day trial of Haywood took place. He was acquitted. I had often heard of the trial but this has been the first systematic account of it I have read. On July 13, 1952 I said: "Read the account of Darrow's troubles in the Los Angeles McNamaras bombing case. But even more interesting was the account of the Loeb-Leopold case. Leopold was a glandularly unbalanced homo who fell in love with handsome Dick Loeb when he was 14. They were ready--at 18 and 17-- to enter law school when in May of 1924 they killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. They tried to collect ransom on him when they were picked up because of Leopold's glasses. Loeb broke and confessed. It was Loeb who was killed in 1936--I heard a fellow prisoner rejected his advances--and Leopold who still lives and who has been mentioned for parole". I finished reading the book on July 17,1952 but made no further comment on it. ( )

There is a three page "Personal Contributors to this Biography. Stone interviewed or used primary sources from a wide group of people. Unlike The Source, his biography of Darwin, this is nonfiction entirely. Darrow's life spanned an important period of American history. He could remember John Brown coming to confer with his father about the Underground Railroad, he was there for the birth of the American labor movement and supported it in his legal career. He spent much of his life in Chicago as it grew and gained importance to the world.He died at the end of 81 years just before World War II began.

This was a bit of a slog for me, but it is an important contribution to American biography.

As with so many books purchased at thrift stores there is a mystery inside. There are 2 photographs of young women in their 20s from the 40s probably. I am going to leave them. You always wonder who these anonymous people are smiling at you from the past. ( )

Johnson"," Allen