Books by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose original profession and calling was as a Unitarian minister, left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. Emerson went on to become one of America's best-known and best-loved 19th century figures. Along with Thoreau, Hawthorne, Fuller, the Peabody sisters, the Alcott family, Jonas, Very, the Ripleys, and the Channings, Emerson helped shape a circle of poets, reformers, artists, and thinkers who helped to define a new identity for American art. In this biography, written by American physician, poet, and humorist Oliver Wendell Holmes, Emerson's life is traced from his family genealogy through his childhood, his years in school, his ordination and early writings, to his years as a preeminent thinker, lecturer, poet, and writer. The book, originally published in 1885, even offers a look at the "future of his reputation" from the late 19th century point of view.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, has been called the greatest jurist and legal scholar in the history of the English-speaking world. In this collection of his speeches, opinions, and letters Richard Posner reveals the fullness of Holmes' achievements as judge, historian and philosopher.