Written By:
Todd C. Peppers
Todd holds the Fowler Chair in Public Affairs at Roanoke College and is also a visiting professor of law at Washington and Lee University. He has published four books and more than twenty articles on Supreme Court history.
Directed By:
Mary Hall Surface
Mary Hall has been nominated for 9 Helen Hayes Awards, five for Outstanding Director & four for the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. In 2002 she was awarded the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical.
Performed By:
Kevin Reese
Kevin has performed at Ford’s Theater, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theater, Folger Theater, the Kennedy Center, and Round House Theater and has toured internationally with solo performances.
Dramaturge:
Clare Cushman
Clare is the author of Courtwatchers, Table for 9, and editor of several books and documentaries on the history of the Court. She serves as publications director and resident historian at the Supreme Court Historical Society.
Producer:
King & Spalding
Sponsor:
David Bruce Smith
The Grateful American Foundation
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. of Massachusetts served as an Associate Justice from 1902 to 1932. He was an influential jurist known for his pioneering scholarship, pithy opinions, and sublime wit. Holmes advocated for “legal realism,” observing that “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.”
Image: Holmes in his study at 1720 I Street. Library of Congress
A staunch abolitionist, Holmes was among the first in his class to enlist in the Union Army, signing up in 1861 with the Massachusetts Volunteers at the age of 20. He was wounded at Ball’s Bluff, Antietam and Chancellorsville. After his three-year enlistment he chose to go home to Boston in July 1864. In a later speech remembering the Union dead he said of his generation: “in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.”
Image: Library of Congress
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Additional Resources
How “Holmes” Became a Play
A Sample of Holmes’ Turns of Phrase
A Sample Page of the Script