"I declare, Wendell—you do have to know about everything!"

Grandmother Holmes made this statement to her seven-year-old grandson in 1848.  On this occasion she happened to walk into the kitchen and find him taking apart a big octagonal clock that hung on the wall.

Wendell liked being a boy, and he never was greatly disturbed when people scolded him for being curious about things.  He really wanted to know what things were like.

On his way to school he often thought of things to ask his teacher.  At other times he proceeded to investigate things all on his own.  Once, for instance, he got soaked under a fountain of water because he wanted to know what an aqueduct was.

The thing that Wendell wanted to know most was what he should do in life.  He talked with several people, including Fanny Dixwell, about his future.  Fanny was a neighbor girl, who somehow seemed to be different from other girls.  She liked to read books and to talk about interesting things.  

At first Wendell wasn't sure what he wanted to become in life. He considered many vocations, but none seemed to be just right.

Young Wendell liked books, and he was an eager student.  After he started to college at Harvard University, he began to crystallize his plans.  Then he decided that he wanted to become a lawyer.

When the War between the States started, Wendell made a notable record as a soldier.  After the War he returned home to continue his preparation in law.

Early in his career as a lawyer, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote many articles and gave many lectures on law.  His successes in these ventures led him to write a book called, "The Common Law," which is still widely respected by the legal profession.

When Holmes served as Justice of the Supreme Court in Massachusetts, and later as Justice of the United States Supreme Court, he put into practice many ideas that he expressed in his book.  He said of the law, "We must think of it differently, interpret it differently, to fit the changing needs of succeeding generations."

Montrew Dunham has vividly traced with great accuracy the early life of this great American.  She paints a colorful picture of this fair-minded, intellectually curious boy who grew up to become a great jurist—one of the greatest jurists in the world.

From the dust jacket