"There is a long tradition of memoirs, notably William O. Douglas’s 'Go East, Young Man,' which is famously colorful and perhaps factually dubious, and his 'The Court Years'; 'The Memoirs of Earl Warren,' published posthumously; Sandra Day O’Connor’s 'Lazy B,' written with her brother, about growing up on a ranch... and John Paul Stevens’s 'The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years'.... [Ketanji Brown Jackson's new memoir] belongs to a modern mini-genre of personal memoirs written much earlier, by sitting Justices. Clarence Thomas pioneered the form, with 'My Grandfather’s Son,' which appeared in 2007, sixteen years into his tenure... followed by Sonia Sotomayor, with 'My Beloved World,' in 2013, four years into hers. The pace has picked up. Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett have books in the works, too. It is almost as if, along with the judicial robes and clerks, newly confirmed Justices are issued book contracts. The advances alone may be the point. Thomas got a million and a half dollars. Sotomayor has built a franchise... that has earned her close to four million dollars. Barrett’s deal, worth a reported two million, was the subject of an open letter of protest.... Jackson’s contract is not public... The salary for an Associate Justice is about three hundred thousand dollars; there are caps on how much the Justices are allowed to earn for outside work, but book earnings are exempt."
This seems to call for the old Samuel Johnson quote: "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."
And to answer the question in the article title: No.
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Bettridge’s Law: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word, 'No'”
There are certainly enough of the Sorkin’s in the pre-Cambrian media.
Are there any who are not on drugs?
Book deals are money laundering by another name.
All newspaper headlines that end in a question marked can be answered, "No."
Some individuals and many institutions may buy these books. But who actually reads them?
Look at the book sales for these sort of things. Now look at how much the Justices are paid. If there's a big variance, its not due to the publishers being "Stoopid", its a thinly disguised bribe or reward for being a good little leftist.
BTW, except for Thomas who did have an interesting Life story, I find these SCOTUS memoirs unreadable and dull.
Most political memoirs are really, really bad.
My Grandfather's Son is outstanding.
It's likely these lucrative book contracts for inevitable unreadable books do influence these politicians and senior-most Federal government employees, including the Supreme Court judges. We know most of these vanity books are ghostwritten, or at least team-written after receiving "famous person" author-notes. Resulting books rarely sell well, unless their campaign war-chest proceeds are used bulk purchase the books as handouts for future mega-donor campaign donations.
Most of these books are remaindered, later pulped, and those that are sold inevitably find their way to thrift stores everywhere. Ever Goodwill in Wisconsin has at least one Obama and one Clinton book for $1.99 hardcover.
It's likely these lucrative book contracts for inevitable unreadable books do influence these politicians and senior-most Federal government employees, including the Supreme Court judges. We know most of these vanity books are ghostwritten, or at least team-written after receiving "famous person" author-notes. Resulting books rarely sell well, unless their campaign war-chest proceeds are used bulk purchase the books as handouts for future mega-donor campaign donations.
Most of these books are remaindered, later pulped, and those that are sold inevitably find their way to thrift stores everywhere. Ever Goodwill in Wisconsin has at least one Obama and one Clinton book for $1.99 hardcover.
Althouse: "And to answer the question in the article title: No." As the George (Bush) the First might have said: "Wouldn't be jurisprudent."
What Can Memoirs by Supreme Court Justices Teach Us?
The left is consumed by the idea of learning. It divides the world into teachers and students -- those who must learn and those esteemed enough to teach. This hunger "to know" -- to be one of the educated, who has received the wisdom from the appropriately-deemed wise -- enables the continuous spreading of lies and falsehoods, all of which are used to refresh the cycle and keep the people from examining their own experiences.
I liked Gorsuch's book OVERRULED, published this year. Aimed at the general public, he explains why we live in a world with too many rules.
Just bought it, thanks! I'm a big fan of Gorsuch.
My Grandfather's Son is one of my favorite books. I convinced one of my kids to read it this summer. He now loves Clarence Thomas too.
I'm pretty sure that the only autobio or memoir of a Supreme Court Justice that I ever read was "My Grandfather's Son". I read it because I wanted to understand how Justice Thomas came to be such an independent thinker. I learned the answer to that question. Sadly, very few potential Justices will be able to go through such a process, survive, and land on the Court.
I was saying the other day that Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams are the only prominent blacks I know who didn't write memoirs that weren't blackity-black genre.
Glenn Loury has a phd thesis about the economics of being black; Michelle Obama has a Princeton thesis about the difficulties of being black in Princeton.
White guys write on the general human condition.
The lived experience? Hardly. There is more to character and judgment than is discernable in a trail of crumbs.
Most political books are either political launchpads or bribes.
Loury's written about his life and how he got where he is now and so did Sowell. Both have written about race, which is a factor in American life and in their own lives. They've also written about the general human condition, Sowell more than Loury perhaps, but both have had more to say about the general human condition than a lot of white economists.
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