The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (March 8, 1841- March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932, and as Acting Chief Justice of the United States January - February 1930. Holmes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of the prominent writer and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Holmes graduated from Harvard University, as did his father. He enlisted in the Massachusetts militia in the Spring of 1861 and he retired to his home in Boston after his three-year enlistment ended in 1864. Upon his return, he enrolled in Harvard Law School; he was admitted to the bar in 1866. On August 11, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt nominated Holmes to a seat on the United States Supreme Court vacated by Justice Horace Gray, who had retired in July. The nomination was made on the recommendation of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, then the junior senator from Massachusetts. Holmes stepped down from the court in 1932 and retired when he was 90 years of age. Many of his papers and writings were donated to Harvard Law School. Holmes died of pneumonia in Washington, D. C. on March 6, 1935; he was almost 94 years old.