Justice for All (106 page)

This book is constructed largely around the original materials in the aforementioned libraries and from dozens of interviews, but it rests also on many secondary sources, which are cited in the bibliography and in footnotes accompanying the text. A few were so important that they deserve special mention. Richard Kluger's
Simple Justice
is the definitive work on the school desegregation cases; no book before or since compares. Lucas “Scot” Powe similarly commands the field on the jurisprudence of the Warren Court; his
The Warren Court and American Politics
is the best of its kind, and Powe's help to me only amplifies my gratitude to him. G. Edward White's
Earl Warren: A Public Life
is a learned legal analysis of Warren, as one would expect from White, given his own brilliance and time as Warren's clerk. Kevin Starr is California's preeminent historian; his work is cited often in these pages, and his advice along the way has been very much appreciated as well. Taylor Branch's writing on Martin Luther King is both inspiration and source. It too is cited through this work, but I owe my larger thanks to him for supplying awe.

I am not the first author to take the measure of Earl Warren. This biography builds on the hard work of others. Leo Katcher's
Earl Warren: A Political Biography
and Jack Harrison Pollack's
Earl Warren: The Judge Who Changed America
are helpful works. A lesser but still appealing book is
Mr. Chief Justice: Earl Warren, A Biography
by Bill Severn. More comprehensive are
Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren
by Ed Cray, who graciously fielded questions from me, and John D. Weaver's
Warren: The Man, the Court, the Era
, a lovingly composed study made with Warren's cooperation. The history of Warren in his Court years is best captured in Bernard Schwartz's exhaustive
Super Chief: Earl Warren and His Supreme Court—A Judicial Biography
and White's
Earl Warren: A Public Life
. I am grateful to all of the above, but especially Cray and White, for their work, support, and assistance.

Undertaking a task such as this is demanding, and not just on an author. My friends and family have lived with Earl Warren these past five years almost as surely as I have. Among those whose forbearance and good humor have helped me and thus this project—and who have supplied meals and shelter and mountains of friendship—are my parents, to whom I owe more than I can articulate; Carol Stogsdill and Steve Stroud (Carol is a long-standing source of kindness and strategic wisdom, and Steve deserves an extra measure of appreciation for supervising the selection of pictures for the book and taking the author photograph); Brad Hall and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (and Henry and Charlie); Paul and Victoria Barrosse (and Emilia and Eva); Whitney Ellerman and Kelly Baker (and Casey, Carter, and Charlie); Keith and Marianne Powell (and Scotty and Jackson); Mark Z. and Marianne Barabak (and Amelia and Rachel); Chris and Sarah Capel (and Elizabeth, Blair, and Anna); and last but never least, my dear and old friend Bill McIntyre, whose Mill Valley apartment is one of my favorite homes away from home. All my research trips—to Sacramento, Berkeley, Washington, Austin, Dallas, New York, Princeton,

Palo Alto, and Chapel Hill—were delightful voyages of learning, made comfortable and happy by these people. I thank them all.

To those who read the manuscript, I owe special thanks—for their time and insights and for the extraordinary depth and range of expertise they brought to bear on my behalf. Brad Hall read early drafts and was consistently a source of writerly insight. My brother John, the brains of our family, gave an early draft of the manuscript a thorough and much-appreciated edit; he and his partner, my brother-in-law Christopher Brescia, were also gracious hosts on my several trips to New York. Henry Weinstein, whose command of the law is surpassed only by his knowledge of baseball and his breath-taking decency, stole time from his important duties at the
Los Angeles Times
to give an insightful reading to a complete draft; Max Holland, the finest and most clearheaded of all scholars on the Warren Commission, generously agreed to read that chapter and significantly improved my understanding of that terrible year. Duke law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, who manages more commitments with better humor than anyone I know, read the entire manuscript and offered important insights, especially in the chapters relating to the Court. Scot Powe gave me a delightful evening in Austin, and a deeply appreciated read of the manuscript. Jeffrey Warren, who has treasured the memory and history of his grandfather, graciously devoted many, many hours to looking over my work for details of his family. And J. R. Moehringer, my friend of some twenty years, read many drafts and counseled me throughout. This is a more thoughtful and stylish book, and I am a more capable writer, because of him.

It should be emphasized that while I am deeply grateful to all of the above, any mistakes in this book are mine and mine alone.

I am especially thankful to members of the Warren family, who have shared many hours and memories in more than a dozen interviews, follow-up conversations, and e-mails. Alas, this book comes too late for me to have met Jim or Dorothy Warren (though Jim's recollections were captured, along with so many others, by Berkeley's Oral History Project). But Virginia Daly, Robert Warren, and Earl Warren, Jr., each sat down time and again, in person and over the telephone, to discuss their mother and father with me. If anything, Nina “Honey Bear” Brien was even more generous, as I called on her many times to fill in missing details. She is as lovely as she is giving. I am grateful to all four children for their generosity to me.

Beyond those who lent homes, evenings, time, and intelligence to the book itself, there are those to whom I am forever in debt for other lessons. Here again, there are indeed too many to count, much less list. My colleagues at the
Los Angeles Times
are a source of wonder; they do difficult, honest, and diligent work every day. Editor Dean Baquet manages that noble enterprise and encouraged my work on this book, even when it kept me from the newsroom. In addition, two
Times
colleagues, Dan Morain and Cathleen Decker, deserve special note, as Dan corralled Sacramento materials for me when he had better things to do, and Cathy weighed in over many lunches with her unfailingly insightful views on California politics. Mark Barabak, noted above, was likewise a font of knowledge and a good friend.

As lucky as I am to work for the
Times
, I am especially blessed to have had the great fortune to work over the years for four of America's finest journalists. Bill Kovach, Sonny Rawls, John Carroll, and James Reston taught me—or at least tried to teach me—about integrity, determination, precision, and commitment to quality, mixed in among many other lessons about life and journalism. Few reporters—indeed, few people—are so lucky as to be able to draw upon such a group of mentors. I am mindful every day of my debt to all four. I reserve a special measure of gratitude for Mr. Reston, who launched me on a career in journalism and whose gentle, joyful excellence stands as the example for which I strive.

Still, at the end of this project as at the beginning, there are two unrivaled recipients of my appreciation and love.

Karlene Goller is my wife and the source of much of this book's wisdom, as well as the great currents of its feeling. On more occasions than I can recall, she engaged in our running conversation about Warren and his life. Intuitively and with her perfect pitch of precision and grace, Karlene taught me about Warren; her patience with my need to think out loud allowed me to learn more. Beyond that, Karlene is a fine lawyer—she spearheaded the long and ultimately successful effort to obtain FBI files relating to Warren from the Bureau through the Freedom of Information Act—and a gifted reader. She was, among other things, the first to suggest the title. And still beyond that, she is the font of so much love that her influence is manifested across this entire book, as it is through every aspect of my life.

My son Jack, meanwhile, cheerfully coordinated the filing of my papers and supplied inspiration throughout. I am glad to have made Earl Warren a part of his young life, and I marvel at the ways this story has penetrated his upbringing. Early in the writing, I overheard Jack describe Warren to a friend. Warren, my six-year-old son explained, was the man who helped Martin Luther King make it so the two of them could go to school with their friends who are African-American. I've never forgotten Jack's elemental observation, and it was one of many that helped clarify my work. Over the long labor of a work such as this, a subject's essence can slip beneath the seas of detail. Time and again, Jack has been there to rescue me with the clear vision. I admire, appreciate, and love my son very much, and I am grateful to him for his many insights.

In the end, a book is a story you tell to those you love, and it is Jack and Karlene to whom I have been telling it for many years now. It is thus fitting that this book is lovingly dedicated to them.

Notes

BL—Bancroft Library

HI—Hoover Institution Archives

LBJ Library—Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum

LOC—Library of Congress

MD—Manuscript Division

NARA—National Archives and Records Administration

PU—Princeton University

RNLB—Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace

 

All references to
Memoirs
are to Earl Warren's memoirs
.
“State archives” indicates the California State Archives.