John Aloysius Farrell is the author of Richard
Nixon: The Life, a biography of that most enigmatic 37th
president of the United States.
His previous books are Clarence Darrow: Attorney For The
Damned, a biography of America's greatest defense attorney,
and of Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century, the
definitive account of House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. and
his times.
Farrell is an American journalist and author. He is a contributing
editor to Politico Magazine, after a prize-winning career as a
newspaperman, most notably at The Denver
Post and The Boston Globe, where he worked as White
House correspondent and served on the
vaunted Spotlight team.
His biography of Clarence Darrow was awarded the Los Angeles
Times book prize for the best biography of 2011, and won
critical praise from reviewers and fellow writers.
“[This is] vintage Darrow, inspiring, enraging, and, in
Farrell's engrossing biography, marvelously alive.” —The New York
Times
“John A. Farrell, with access to previously unavailable materials,
brings the 'grandest legal career in American history' to life
again in a masterfully researched and elegantly written volume.”
—The Boston Globe
“Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned is inpeccably researched,
beautifully written, and timely . . . Farrell gives us Darrow in
all his brilliance, hypocrisy, and eccentricity. . . . As Farrell's
riveting biography makes abundantly clear, there was no more
powerful and incendiary thunderbolt than Clarence Darrow.” —San
Francisco Chronicle
“A clear-sighted, empathetic biography. . . . [Farrell] knows that
he has a protagonist of Shakespearean richness and complexity, and
this well-written, vividly atmospheric portrait captures Clarence
Darrow with his faults and contradictions intact.” —Los Angeles
Times
“A comprehensive biography of the storied defense attorney.
Making elaborate use of transcripts, observers’ accounts,
correspondence and newspaper reports, Farrell chronicles Darrow’s
most celebrated trials in detail. . . . These cases—including two
in which Darrow, almost surely guilty, was himself tried for jury
tampering—dominate the narrative, but Farrell neatly places them
within the larger context of this complicated man’s crowded life
and practice. . . . Farrell unflinchingly addresses [Darrow’s]
shortcomings, even as he underscores the genuine brilliance of a
still-unmatched advocate for underdogs everywhere.” —Kirkus Starred
Review
“Farrell offers excerpts from Darrow’s magnificent courtroom
arguments as well as delicious details of his personal life (he was
a hearty participant in the era’s free love movement). [He] gleans
from previously undisclosed material to offer a completely engaging
portrait of a flawed man of noble ideals.” —Booklist Starred
Review
“John A. Farrell, in Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned, goes
farther into the archives and deeper into Darrow’s crags.” —New
Yorker
“Masterful . . . a riveting piece of work and certain to be one of
the most fascinating biographies of this or any other year.” —The
Daily Beast
“Groundbreaking. . . . Attorney for the Damned is a well-balanced
portrait of the private and public Darrow, giving the sweep of his
life and times.” —The Washington Times
"Farrell draws from previously unpublished correspondence to give
fresh insight into Darrow's remarkable career. . . . A thoughtful
overview of Darrow, his life, and his many accomplishments.” —The
Seattle Times
“It is almost impossible to conceive how so much living could have
come in just one life, and Jack Farrell’s masterful new biography
makes Clarence Darrow come alive. This is a wonderful, at times
heart-pounding story, told with precision, sympathy, and insight.”
—Ken Burns
“This book is a joy and a revelation. It is at once a rollicking
tour through the mind of a legal genius and a spellbinding account
of some of the most famous cases in American history. The chapter
on Leopold and Loeb alone is worth waiting in line to get a seat in
Jack Farrell's courtroom.” —David Maraniss, author of When Pride
Still Mattered and They Marched into Sunlight
“John Farrell’s Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned is a
riveting historical drama filled with strange twists and turns.
Every page is a triumph of scholarship. A marvelous biography!”
—Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University and
author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the
Crusade for America
“People want heroes. But history demands truth. This gritty
biography demystifies a deeply flawed legal hero, who 'almost
assuredly' bribed jurors and witnesses in order to level the
playing field against 'the rich and powerful.' Darrow was a giant
of his corrupt times. His biography is a must-read for all
Americans who care about both the means and ends of justice!” —Alan
M. Dershowitz, author of The Trials of Zion
“Clarence Darrow confounded titles: he was a freethinker, hedonist,
anarchist, populist, infidel, cynic, and master storyteller who
became our greatest lawyer and a folk hero. Farrell’s masterful,
sweeping new biography not only does justice to all his roles but
joyously satisfies even a Darrow addict like me.” —Roy Black, Esq.,
criminal defense attorney
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