Go East, Young Man

Last updated
Go East, Young Man
Go East, Young Man cover.jpg
Author William O. Douglas
LanguageEnglish
SubjectPre-judicial life of author
Genre Memoir
Publisher Random House
Publication date
March 12, 1974
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages493
ISBN 0-394-48834-2
OCLC 737011
Followed byThe Court Years, 1939 to 1975 

Go East, Young Man: The Early Years is a memoir written by United States Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. It describes his childhood and early adult life, ending with his appointment to the Court in 1939 at age 40. [1] The title, a play on the famous American expression "Go West, young man", alludes to Douglas's upbringing in the Western United States – being uprooted often, eventually landing in Yakima, Washington – followed by his legal education and professional success in the Eastern United States. It was published by Random House in April 1974 and is 493 pages long. [2]

The work showcases a passion for the natural world [1] and includes vivid descriptions of a young Douglas's time in the Western mountains, [2] including such tales as spending a defenseless night with a friend on an isolated spit of land, convinced that a screeching cougar nearby was about to do away with both of them. [3] While not covering Douglas's tenure on the court, the book does not shy away from expressing his opinions on matters political or otherwise. [2] He also criticizes personal aspects of people by name, including John Foster Dulles. [1] In preparation for the work, Douglas said he had spent time researching records of his family's past and visiting ancestral and familial locations in Nova Scotia and Minnesota. [1]

Upon publication, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York Times found the book to be "a peculiar kind of autobiography" that, while capturing the nature of its author, is characterized by "a disjointedness between one paragraph and the next that [...] makes the book read as if it was the transcript of an interview with all the questions expunged". [2] Nat Hentoff, writing for The New York Times Book Review , viewed Go East, Young Man much more favorably, saying his writing both here and in his Court opinions features a high level of quality, wit, and persuasiveness, and that "he makes this book so continually arresting that it reads like the kind of novel one wishes would not end." [1] Jim Dinsmore of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "Justice William O. Douglas has usually been a maverick and is part of an American tradition, which, in contrast to conformity, extols the virtues of individuality and diversity" and called the memoir "a major testament of our time." [4]

Cover of the paperback edition Go East, Young Man paperback cover.jpg
Cover of the paperback edition

Go East, Young Man spent six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List. [5] It was published in a paperback edition by Dell's Delta Books division later in 1974, at the same length of 493 pages. [6]

The work was framed as the first part of the Autobiography of William O. Douglas, with the second part, The Court Years, 1939 to 1975, being published in 1980 after the author's death. Legal commentator Jeffrey Rosen later wrote that "the norms for judicial memoirs were shattered" by the two volumes and their openness towards expressing strong political viewpoints and criticizing others. [7]

Scholar Bruce Allen Murphy published a heavily researched biography of Douglas in 2003, Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas. [8] In it, he wrote that Douglas had long falsified much of his early life, including the nature of his childhood illness, the economic suffering of his family, his military service during World War I, and his performance at Columbia Law School. [7] [8] James Ryerson, writing for The New York Times Book Review, accepted Murphy's conclusions and stated that, "In his 1974 autobiography, Go East, Young Man, [Douglas] repeated many of these outright lies, introduced new ones and liberally embellished other key details of his life story." [8] However, another scholar working on a Douglas biography, David J. Danelski, as well as some of Douglas's past associates, said that while Douglas may have exaggerated at times, Murphy's biography had not proven several alleged fabrications regarding his health, education, or marriage. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felix Frankfurter</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1939 to 1962

Felix Frankfurter was an Austrian-born American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, during which he was an advocate of judicial restraint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William O. Douglas</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1939 to 1975

William Orville Douglas was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 to 1975. Douglas was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views and is often cited as the U.S. Supreme Court's most liberal justice ever. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, becoming one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. In 1975, Time called Douglas "the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court." He is the longest-serving justice in history, having served for 36 years and 209 days.

<i>The Boys of Summer</i> (book) 1972 book by Roger Kahn

The Boys of Summer is a 1972 non-fiction baseball book by Roger Kahn. After recounting his childhood in Brooklyn and his life as a young reporter on the New York Herald Tribune, the author relates some history of the Brooklyn Dodgers up to their victory in the 1955 World Series. He then tracks the lives of the players over the subsequent years as they aged. The title of the book is taken from a Dylan Thomas poem that describes "the boys of summer in their ruin".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Irwin Thompson</span> American poet and social critic (1938–2020)

William Irwin Thompson was an American social philosopher, cultural critic, and poet. He received the Oslo International Poetry Festival Award in 1986. He described his writing and speaking style as "mind-jazz on ancient texts". He was the founder of the Lindisfarne Association, which proposed the study and realization of a new planetary culture.

<i>The Certificate</i> Novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer

The Certificate is a novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, published in English in 1992. David Bendinger, a poor, young Yiddish writer wishes to emigrate to Palestine from Poland, and because married couples are given preference, he tries to arrange for a marriage certificate to be purchased for him by a wealthy woman whose fiancee lives in Palestine. The narrative deals with the abject poverty of David, as well as his Jewish heritage, and details the rise of both Communism and Zionism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Janeway</span> American novelist

Elizabeth Janeway was an American author and critic.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt was an American journalist, editor of the New York Times Book Review, critic, and novelist, based in New York City. He served as senior Daily Book Reviewer from 1969 to 1995.

<i>Brothers</i> (Goldman novel) 1986 novel by William Goldman

Brothers is a thriller novel by William Goldman. It is the sequel to his 1974 novel Marathon Man and is Goldman's final novel.

<i>The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court</i> 1979 book by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong

The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court is a 1979 book by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong. It gives a "behind-the-scenes" account of the United States Supreme Court during Warren Burger's early years as Chief Justice of the United States. The book covers the years from the 1969 term through the 1975 term. Using Woodward's trademark writing technique involving "off-the-record" sources, the book provides an account of the deliberations leading to some of the court's more controversial decisions from the 1970s. The book significantly focused on the Supreme Court's unanimous 1974 decision in United States v. Nixon, which ruled that President Richard Nixon was legally obligated to turn over the Watergate tapes. In 1985, upon the death of Associate Justice Potter Stewart, Woodward disclosed that Stewart had been the primary source for The Brethren.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Summers</span> Irish author (born 1942)

Anthony Bruce Summers is an Irish author. He is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and has written ten non-fiction books. He worked for the BBC in current affairs coverage as a producer and then as an assistant editor of the long-running investigative documentary series Panorama. His first book was published in 1976.

Charles Alan Reich was an American academic and writer best known for writing the 1970 book, The Greening of America, a paean to the counterculture of the 1960s. Excerpts of the book first appeared in The New Yorker, and its seismic reception there contributed to the book leading The New York Times Best Seller list. Due to the theme and implications of this book Reich was described as a "high priest of antitechnology".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilfrid Sheed</span> American novelist

Wilfrid John Joseph Sheed was an English-born American novelist and essayist.

David Frantz Bradford was a prominent American economist and professor of economics and public affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

<i>An American Life</i> 1990 autobiography of Ronald Reagan

An American Life is the 1990 autobiography of former American President Ronald Reagan. Released almost two years after Reagan left office, the book reached number eight on The New York Times Best Seller list. The book was largely ghostwritten by journalist Robert Lindsey.

Humoresques, Op. 101, is a piano cycle by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, written during the summer of 1894. Music critic David Hurwitz says "the seventh Humoresque is probably the most famous small piano work ever written after Beethoven's Für Elise."

Tom Dardis was an American author and editor. He served as editor for multiple publishing houses such as Avon Books and Berkley Publishing Corporation. Dardis was also an educator who taught at such institutions as Adelphi University and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York.

<i>The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway</i>

The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway is an account of the 1967–1968 season on and off-Broadway by American novelist and screenwriter William Goldman. It originally was published in 1969 and is considered one of the better books ever written on American theater. In The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt called the book “Very nearly perfect...It is a loose-limbed, gossipy, insider, savvy, nuts-and-bolts report on the annual search for the winning numbers that is now big-time American commercial theatre.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Allen Murphy</span>

Bruce Allen Murphy is an American judicial biographer and scholar of constitutional law and politics. He is the Fred Morgan Kirby Professor of Civil Rights at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, a position he has held since 1998. Prior to that appointment, he was a professor of Political Science and a professor of American History and Politics at Pennsylvania State University.

Woodrow Wilson appointed three Associate Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States, James Clark McReynolds, Louis Brandeis, and John Hessin Clarke.

Hellmut Otto Emil Lehmann-Haupt was a German-American author, academic, bibliography expert, and rare books expert. After World War II, he worked with the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, commonly known as the Monuments Men.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hentoff, Nat (April 14, 1974). "Go East, Young Man" (PDF). The New York Times Book Review .
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (April 22, 1974). "More of Men and Mountains" (PDF). The New York Times . p. 33.
  3. ↑ Douglas, Go East Young Man, pp. 189–191.
  4. ↑ Dinsmore, Jim (May 5, 1974). "...and Mr. Justice Douglas". Chicago Sun-Times . p. D5.
  5. ↑ "The New York Times Best Seller List – June 23, 1974" (PDF). Hawes Publications. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
  6. ↑ Inspection of title page and last page in a physical copy of the paperback edition.
  7. 1 2 Rosen, Jeffrey (January 29, 2006). "Judicial Exposure". The New York Times Book Review .
  8. 1 2 3 Ryerson, James (April 13, 2003). "'Wild Bill': Dirty Rotten Hero". The New York Times Book Review .
  9. ↑ Lee, Felicia R. (May 24, 2003). "How Noblity of Purpose Can Square With Meanness and Lies". The New York Times .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.