Foreword

Abstract:The Supreme Court Historical Society’s publication of Malvina Harlan’s Memories is cause for celebration. Some years ago, my law clerks and I were collecting stories told by or about the wives of Supreme Court Justices.1 The Library of Congress aided that endeavor by furnishing us with a remarkable, yet unpublished manuscript. Running some 200 double-spaced typewritten pages, it was Malvina Shanklin Harlan’s tribute to her husband’s career and account of her own work and days. The life she called long ran from 1836 until 1911. Malvina’s manuscript is filled with anecdotes and insights about politics and religion in that era, the Supreme Court in the years 1877 to 1911, and the Harlan family.