Catherine Drinker Bowen

Mrs. Bowen’s latest book, MIRACLE AT PHILADELPHIA,is the story of the Federal Convent ion of 17S7, which wrolc the United States Constitution. From the book we have drawn two chapters, in themselves a diversion from the narrative. Mrs. Bowen takes her readers out of the convention for a journey through the States– to give a glimpse, she says, of the country for which the Fathers were with much difficulty contriving a Constitution.

Of all the famous men she has written about in her biographies, Mr. Justice Holmes, Tchaikovsky, young John Adams, Sir Edward Coke, and Francis Bacon, Catherine Drinker Bowen believes that Bacon was the most companionable, the one she would most have enjoyed spending an afternoon with. Here is why she thinks so.

CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN was a musician before she became a biographer, and her violin is as dear to her as any of her books. Among her early books are BELOVED FRIEND: THE STORY OF TCHAIKOWSKY AND NADEJDA VON MECK,and her biography of the brothers Rubinstein, FREE ARTIST,both of which have just been reprinted: then she turned her attention to three great lawyers, Justice Holmes, young John Adams, and Sir Edward Coke, Queen Elizabeth’s great advocate. Mrs. Bowen is note in England in search of source material about Francis Bacon.

Abiographer who has brought lucidity and insight to her biographies of three great lawyers,Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Adams,and the Queen’s Advocate, Sir Edward Coke, CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN is here concerned with the courage which is occasionally called out of young lawyers and of the permanent record which that courage may leave in the long run of history,

A historian of first rank, a defender of our national parks,and a spokesman from the southwest, Bernard De Voto was one of the most pungent critics this country has known, and few knew him better than CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN. De Vota’s manuscripts and correspondence have recently been acquired by Leland Stanford University, and on this occasion she was asked to make this estimate of De Voto as a historian.

The duties and helpfulness of literary agents are often unappreciated by those outside the writing profession. CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN,versatile and eloquent biographer, tells of her warm and inspiring association with the late Harold Ober, one of the greatest literary agents.

In the course of doing research for her various biographies, CATHERINE DKINKER BOWEN of Philadelphia has read in libraries as far West from her home as California and as far East as Leningrad. Over the years she has kept working notes on the libraries and librarians whom she has known, and the paper which has emerged from this source we think happily appropriate for the celebration of National Library Week, March 16-22.

CATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN has been writing for close to four decades. She began with essays about music and musicians, and these formed her first book, FRIENDS AND FIDDLERS. Music led her on into biography, and with the publication of YANKEE FROM OLYMPUS she achieved national recognition. She speaks from experience in this paper, which was prepared for the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.

Mr. Justice Holmes, John Adams, and Sir Edward Coke — to the study of these three giants in lawCATHERINE DRINKER BOWEN has devoted no less than fifteen years. The sequence is important, for each of the three built upon the edifice of his predecessor; and for this reason perhaps Sir Edward Coke, who suppressed the conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth and fought for the Commons against James I and Charles I—perhaps he is the mightiest of the trio in that he laid the foundations of our Bill of Rights. The following excerpt, which shows Sir Edward — now Chief Justice Coke—in his historic role of champion of the common law against King James’s abuse of the royal prerogative, is the third drawn from Mrs. Bowen’s new book, The Lion and the Throne. These excerpts are highlights in a volume which in its entirety runs to 200,000 words.