The Story of My Life

              The Story of My Life
by
CLARENCE DARROW

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Here, for the first time, appears in print the whole unvarnished, unquestionable story of Clarence Darrow—by Clarence Darrow himself.

It is the story of a man who has become internationally famous for his part in some of the most sensational criminal trials in the history of the country, trials in which he has almost without fail taken the side against which public opinion has raised its voice.

It explains why Darrow gave up what promised to be a brilliant career as a corporation lawyer to devote his life to the defense of cases which to the great bulk of people appear undefendable—bombings, murders, and such.

It gives many hitherto unpublished facts about the Railroad Strike of 1894, about the McNamara Dynamiting case, about the Labor Cases in which Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone were tried for the murder of the governor of Idaho.

It tells of the defense of Eugene Debs, of the Scopes trial in which Darrow came to grips with William Jennings Bryan, of the Loeb-Leopold trial which not so many years ago attracted national attention.

But what is even more important than the side-lights and new data bearing on these cases is the light which Darrow throws on the motives involved—the motives of those who took part in the crimes and the motives of those who defended them.



Clarence Darrow tells his story
Darrow explains why crimes of this sort occur; he has probed humanity to its depths, and he has no illusions about the human race.

It is a story that overflows with action and incident, from Darrow's earliest days as a schoolboy, law student, and country town lawyer, through a half-century of struggle which has left him one of the most outstanding criminal lawyers of his time.

It is a witty book, and a very human book.  The thousands who have wondered about Clarence Darrow and who have puzzled over his espousal of cases which seemed irrevocably lost, will here find the real reason for it all—one with which they may not agree, but one which commands consideration and serious thought.

And withal it is a serious book, for in its pages the reader finds expounded the whole philosophy of the under-dog.  It will help him to understand how things that we call crime can be, and how they are justified.

In short, it is a book to enjoy, to think about—and one which will be widely discussed.

The book will be published February 5th.  There will be two editions, a limited edition signed by Clarence Darrow himself, with a frontispiece portrait in color, and with sixteen illustrations; a regular edition with eight illustrations.

Of the limited edition there will be printed only such number of copies as the publishers have orders for on the day of publication.  The regular edition will be on sale through the usual book channels.

Price, Regular Edition $3.50; Limited Edition $10.00.

CARSON PIRIE SCOTT & CO.
WABASH AVENUE BOOK ROOM, CHICAGO




Clarence Darrow's The Story of My Life

CONTENTS

Chapter 1.
BEFORE THE BEGINNING.
I arrive.

Chapter 2.
MY CHILDHOOD IN KINSMAN.
On religious and social questions, our family early learned to stand alone.

Chapter 3.
AT THE THRESHOLD OF LIFE.
As I look back at my school-days, I am astounded at the appalling waste of time.

Chapter 4.
CALLED TO THE BAR.
I never advise any one to play poker or not to play poker, but I always advise them to keep the limit down.

Chapter 5.
I MAKE A HIT.
I discovered that a little book, Our Criminal Code and its Victims, was to make its author my idol, and my life what it is.

Chapter 6.
GETTING ON.
Providence provides for me by ill-treating my superior.

Chapter 7.
THE RAILROAD STRIKE.
No one knew what Mr. Debs and the A.R.U. were enjoined from doing; it depended upon how many inferences the court could base on further inferences.

Chapter 8.
EUGENE V. DEBS.
From his cell in Atlanta Prison he saw the flowers in the garden but not the bars at the window.

Chapter 9.
HOW I FELL.
Defending men charged with crime soon meant something more than winning or losing a case; it meant searching for the causes of human conduct.

Chapter 10.
CHILD TRAINING.
There are very few, even among idiots, who cannot fill some position if rightly trained.

Chapter 11.
I MEET MR. BRYAN.
Altgeld said: I have been thinking over Bryan's speech, and what did he say anyhow?

Chapter 12.
PARDONING THE ANARCHISTS.
Before pardoning the anarchists, John P. Altgeld said, … from that time, I will be a dead man.

Chapter 13.
JOHN P. ALTGELD.
The poor, the dreamers, the idealists, with haunted gaze, came to his office as the anchorite would visit a shrine.

Chapter 14.
THE COAL STRIKE.
A million people cannot be kept at the point of want without protesting.

Chapter 15.
A FLIER IN POLITICS.
Every session of the legislature was opened with prayer, before any of the members could canvass around for people to hold up.

Chapter 16.
THE SKELETON IN THE FOREST.
Through it all flitted shadow-pictures of Robin Hood, the greenwood tree, and Daniel Boone, blazing a trail toward a new civilization.

Chapter 17.
THE ATHENS OF THE SAGE-BRUSH.
Through a desert waste, a strip of green turns and twists and loops and zigzags; thus the Snake River leads one to Boise, Idaho.

Chapter 18.
THE HAYWOOD CASE.
Harry Orchard tells his story:—and what a story!

Chapter 19.
STILL RATTLING THE SKELETON.
Once more the doctor lovingly examined the skull with the hole in it, and gave as his opinion that the deceased was killed by a bullet.

Chapter 20.
IN SEARCH OF A GERM.
A newspaper man brought a telegram to me at the hospital which read: Darrow dying; interview him.

Chapter 21.
THE MCNAMARA CASE.
We found that the state would claim a wide conspiracy, involving investigations from Indianapolis to California.


Chapter 22.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS.
We were living and fighting on less than a hundred dollars a month, when a stranger of standing wired: You have defended men for nothing all your life.  I will let you have all the money you need.

Chapter 23.
GEORGE BISSETT.
He was taken to the hospital to die, but unfortunately he recovered.

Chapter 24.
BACK TO CHICAGO.
By the calendar we had been away two years.  It seemed a lifetime.

Chapter 25.
WAR.
If nations persist in treating each other as enemies, instead of friends, they will always find causes for wars.

Chapter 26.
THE AFTERMATH OF THE WAR.
All the efforts to foster individual freedom are shattered with shot and shell.

Chapter 27.
THE LOEB-LEOPOLD TRAGEDY.
I went in to do what I could against a wave of hatred and malice.

Chapter 28.
THE LOEB-LEOPOLD TRIAL.
A summer of restless days and sleepless nights.

Chapter 29.
THE EVOLUTION CASE.
Mr. Bryan made it clear that he was not so much interested in the Age of Rocks as in the Rock of Ages.

Chapter 30.
SCIENCE VERSUS FUNDAMENTALISM.
Making Tennessee safe for knowledge.

Chapter 31.
THE BRYAN FOUNDATION.
The monument at Dayton has progressed to the point of an abandoned hole in the ground.

Chapter 32.
A DRY AMERICA.
Bodies overstuffed from overeating are popular among the good people, but swallowing a drop of alcohol is injurious.

Chapter 33.
THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT.
For more than ten years tens of millions of people have defied this fanatical law.

Chapter 34.
THE NEGRO IN THE NORTH.
I may not be true to my ideals always, but I never see a negro without feeling that I ought to pay part of a debt to a race captured and brought here in chains.

Chapter 35.
A YEAR IN EUROPE.
Montreaux, and the Mediterranean:—How happy one can be with either.

Chapter 36.
LEARNING TO LOAF.
I had stood with the hunted until I was seventy-two years old; I decided to close my office door and call it my day's work.

Chapter 37.
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CRIME.
It is not a campaign against crime, but an orgy of hatred and vengeance.

Chapter 38.
CAUSE AND EFFECT.
A physician traces a condition to its cause, and then treats the cause.

Chapter 39.
THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND.
The poor men who have gone to their deaths on gallows are not the only murderers.

Chapter 40.
WHY CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?
When judges add to the death-sentence And may God have mercy on your soul, they have their fingers crossed.

Chapter 41.
A NEW HABIT.
I had other interests and inclinations; and the time was growing short.

Chapter 42.
QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS.
Better to say I don't know, than to guess at answers.

Chapter 43.
FUTURE LIFE.
No one can even imagine the place or form of a future life.

Chapter 44.
DELUSION OF DESIGN AND PURPOSE.
If there is purpose in the universe, then what is that purpose?

Chapter 45.
THE LAW AS IT IS.
To the average man, a lawsuit is a calamity.

Chapter 46.
SLOWING DOWN.
The big arm-chair in the library lures me.

Chapter 47.
TOWARD THE END OF THE TRAIL.
In spite of all philosophy, we are prone to feel regret over things beyond recall.