About the Author

Tinsley E. Yarbrough is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at East Carolina University. He is the author of ten books, including David Hackett Souter: Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court, The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution, and Judge Frank Johnson and Human Rights in Alabama, for which he won an ABA Silver Gavel Award. He lives in Greenville, North Carolina.

Reviews

"In yet another highly readable judicial biography, Yarbrough once again delivers the kind of scholarly, yet thoroughly engaging, book that we have come to expect from one of the best practitioners of the genre... Yarbrough deftly blends careful political and legal analysis with thoughtful insights into the personal and psychological nature of his subject... an absorbing account of Justice Harry Blackmun's life and work... an important addition to our
understanding of the justice and the Courts upon which he served... Yarbrough's thought-provoking treatment is a welcome and important contribution."--Law & Politics Book Review
"Yarbrough (emeritus, East Carolina Univ.) an astute...server of the US's judicial world, has added to his luster with this splendid biography of Justice Harry A. Blackmun... skillfully weaves his subject's personal life into his professional career in a manner that holds the reader's attention This is a finely tuned work... Recommended."--Choice
"Yarbrough is a knowledgeable Court observer and his detailed chronicle of Blackmun's later behind-the-scenes maneuvering to preserve Roe from being undermined is fascinating and well toldA noteworthy story."--Publishers Weekly
"Making use of an unusual number of original sources-- including over fifteen hundred cartons of Blackmun's papers...--the author persuasively shows how Blackmun's life affected his decisions."--The Journal of American History
"Tinsley Yarbrough has done it again! Professor Yarbrough is already admired for his widely acclaimed biographies of both the first and second Justice John Marshall Harlan. Now he brings us as vivid a portrait as we are ever likely to have of one of the Supreme Court's more enigmatic justices--Harry A. Blackmun. Drawing upon an impressive amount of original investigation, the author shows his deft hand for personalities, his nicely honed understanding of the
Court and its jurisprudence, and his gift for telling a good story. Appointed to the Court soon after Warren Burger, Justice Blackmun served during the turbulent years of conservative efforts to turn
away from the Warren Court's activism. In taking us into the world of Harry Blackmun, Tinsley Yarbrough adds welcome perspective on life in the Marble Palace."--A. E. Dick Howard, White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs, University of Virginia
"It takes a judicial biographer of the skill of Tinsley Yarbrough to capture Harry Blackmun, one of the late-twentieth century's most intriguing Supreme Court Justices, in all of his richness and complexity as the self-effacing lover of the underdog. Finally, we understand how 'Old Number 3' for Richard Nixon and the conservatives became instead 'Old Number 1' in the hearts of liberals everywhere."--Bruce Allen Murphy, author of Wild Bill: The Legend and
Life of William O. Douglas
"A first-rate judicial biography. Yarbrough's analysis of Justice Blackmun as the quintessential outsider who perseveres and eventually prevails is entirely persuasive. It is likely to be the definitive Harry Blackmun biography in our time."--David N. Atkinson, author of Leaving the Bench: Supreme Court Justices at the End
"Our leading contemporary judicial biographer has penned another major contribution with his Harry A. Blackmun: The Outsider Justice. Faithfully researched, expertly and sensitively analyzed, Professor Yarbrough provides profound understanding of one of the most vexatious and most controversial justices in the Court's history."--Henry J. Abraham, James Hart Professor of Politics Emeritus, University of Virginia
"Yarbrough is a knowledgeable Court observer and his detailed chronicle of Blackmun's later behind-the-scenes maneuvering to preserve Roe from being undermined is fascinating and well toldA noteworthy story."--Publishers Weekly
"Tinsley Yarbrough has done it again! Professor Yarbrough is already admired for his widely acclaimed biographies of both the first and second Justice John Marshall Harlan. Now he brings us as vivid a portrait as we are ever likely to have of one of the Supreme Court's more enigmatic justices--Harry A. Blackmun. Drawing upon an impressive amount of original investigation, the author shows his deft hand for personalities, his nicely honed understanding of the
Court and its jurisprudence, and his gift for telling a good story. Appointed to the Court soon after Warren Burger, Justice Blackmun served during the turbulent years of conservative efforts to turn
away from the Warren Court's activism. In taking us into the world of Harry Blackmun, Tinsley Yarbrough adds welcome perspective on life in the Marble Palace."--A. E. Dick Howard, White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs, University of Virginia
"It takes a judicial biographer of the skill of Tinsley Yarbrough to capture Harry Blackmun, one of the late-twentieth century's most intriguing Supreme Court Justices, in all of his richness and complexity as the self-effacing lover of the underdog. Finally, we understand how 'Old Number 3' for Richard Nixon and the conservatives became instead 'Old Number 1' in the hearts of liberals everywhere."--Bruce Allen Murphy, author of Wild Bill: The Legend and
Life of William O. Douglas
"A first-rate judicial biography. Yarbrough's analysis of Justice Blackmun as the quintessential outsider who perseveres and eventually prevails is entirely persuasive. It is likely to be the definitive Harry Blackmun biography in our time."--David N. Atkinson, author of Leaving the Bench: Supreme Court Justices at the End
"Our leading contemporary judicial biographer has penned another major contribution with his Harry A. Blackmun: The Outsider Justice. Faithfully researched, expertly and sensitively analyzed, Professor Yarbrough provides profound understanding of one of the most vexatious and most controversial justices in the Court's history."--Henry J. Abraham, James Hart Professor of Politics Emeritus, University of Virginia