Betsy McDonough, age 15, of Rutland, Vt., for her question:
WHO WAS OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES?
Oliver Wendell Holmes was an American writer who won fame for his essays and poems during the mid 1800s. He was also a physician and taught at Harvard Medical School during the years of his greatest literary success.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., one of the writer's sons, was one of the best known American judges of the 1900s. He served as a member of the Supreme Court of the United States for nearly 30 years.
Holmes Sr. graduated from Harvard College and entered law school in 1829. But law bored him so he switched to medicine, receiving an M.D. degree in 1836. He started writing articles on medical subjects and quickly gained recognition for his observations.
In 1847 Holmes was appointed dean of the Harvard Medical School and professor of anatomy and physiology. He served as dean until 1853 and taught until 1882.
Through the years Holmes also became a popular public speaker. He wrote on many subjects and included poetry writing as one of his talents. One of his most famous poems was "Old Ironside," a poem which protested the U.S. Navy's plan to destroy the Constitution, a historic but unseaworthy frigate. The poem helped save the ship.
Holmes helped James Russell Lowell and other writers launch a new magazine in 1857. Holmes named it the Atlantic Monthly and joined the staff as a columnist. His wise, witty column made both Holmes and the magazine famous.
Holmes continued to publish essays, fiction and poetry until he was well into his 80s.
Holmes Jr. graduated from Harvard Law School. He was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1882 and became chief justice of Massachusetts in 1889.
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Holmes an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He became one of the nation's best known judges.
Holmes Jr. voted often to save legislation designed to improve social conditions. But he was not primarily a reformer. He believed in bigness and often expressed admiration for industrial tycoons. His dissents did not indicate that he approved the laws that the majority was striking down. Rather, he dissented because he believed that judges have no right to interfere with legislative policy unless that policy clearly violates the nation's Constitution.
He influenced judges to refrain from allowing their personal opinions to affect their decisions. This doctrine of judicial restraint has come to dominate American judicial thinking.
In some respects, historians say, Holmes was more famous as a philosopher than as a judge.
With all his brilliance, Holmes was a man of many contradictions. His major contribution was in convincing men that the law should develop along with the society it serves.