Many Progressive era leaders combined active political careers with literary pursuits, but few met with the national acclaim that rewarded Sen. Albert Jeremiah Beveridge of Indiana. His four-volume biography of John Marshall not only won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1920 but has stood the test of time and remains the best biographical treatment of the chief justice.

Beveridge brought to his literary tasks a rich and varied background that served to sharpen his perceptions and grasp of life situations. Born into a Highland Country, Ohio, family much "reduced in circumstances," Beveridge moved to Illinois at the age of three. He entered the work force at an early age and served in a variety of menial tasks until at fifteen he was placed in charge of a logging crew. Before he was sixteen, however, he entered high school, and in 1881 friends lent him money to further his formal...