The first biography of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the best known figure in the history of American law. His book "The Common Law" is still in print after 100 years, and is considered to be one of the great works of American legal history. Holmes was a complex figure, considerably different from the grandfatherly figure of popular legend. Although he was seen as a role model by three generations of liberal reformers, he at one time adhered to a primitive type of fascism. This account of his life and work spans the years from the Civil War battlefields of his youth, to the impassioned constitutional battles of his old age.