SOURCE: "Clarence Seward Darrow: 1857-1938," in The Antioch Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, March, 1953, pp. 52-66.

In the following essay, Ginger provides an overview of Darrow's life and works.

The career of Clarence Darrow sprawls unpredictably through eight decades of American life. He appeared as defense attorney in courtrooms from New York to Los Angeles, from Minnesota to Tennessee, and finally in Hawaii. Among his clients were labor leaders charged with conspiracy, a superintendent of schools accused of graft, professional stick-up men, a school teacher accused of violating an anti-evolution law, more than fifty persons indicted for murder in the first degree, publicutility corporations seeking privileges from the state. His living was always earned from the practice of law, but his interests ranged far wider. He lectured and debated incessantly, on topics as diverse as Prohibition and the League of Nations. Often he stepped onto the political stage, sometimes as...