Sunday Book Review
John Paul Stevens: By the Book
APRIL 3, 2014
The former Supreme Court justice and author of “Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir” and, most recently, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution,” feels indebted to Norman Maclean, who taught him poetry at the University of Chicago.
What books are currently on your night stand?
“The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism,” by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Who is your favorite novelist of all time? And your favorite novelist writing today?
Leo Tolstoy for all time; Edward Rutherfurd or Ruth Rendell for living authors.
What books on the law would you most recommend to the general reader? And to a student of law?
Ken Manaster’s “The American Legal System and Civic Engagement” to the general reader; Leon Green’s “Judge and Jury” for law students.
Who are the best people writing about law today?
Probably Stephen Breyer and Richard Posner.
What are your literary guilty pleasures? Do you have a favorite genre?
MAY 3, 2012 Writings about the authorship of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare.
Which books might we be surprised to find on your bookshelves?
The King James edition of the Bible, and mysteries by Georges Simenon.
What was the last book to make you laugh?
Dave Barry’s report on last year’s news events.
The last book that made you cry?
I don’t remember.
The last book that made you furious?
“Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America,” by Gilbert King.
What kind of reader were you as a child? And what were your favorite books?
Both of my parents loved books and encouraged my brothers and me to read a great deal. Among my favorites were: “Winnie-the-Pooh”; Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Men” and “Little Women”; Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”; Count Felix von Luckner’s account of his raids on Allied shipping during the First World War; and dozens of books about Tom Swift.
What were the most influential books you read as a student?
Aristotle’s “Poetics.”
Whom do you consider your literary heroes?
The author of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare; I am also a great fan of A. Conan Doyle.
Which novels have had the most impact on you as a writer? Is there a particular book that made you want to write?
I don’t know what novels may have motivated any of my writing, but the teacher to whom I am most indebted was Norman Maclean, who taught the course in poetry at the University of Chicago.
If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?
“Six Amendments.”
You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?
Samuel Clemens, Charles Dickens and the author of the Shakespeare canon. If they decline, I would invite Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant and Alphonse Daudet.
What kinds of books do you like to read before you go to bed?
History.
And what kinds of books do you read when you travel?
Supreme Court opinions.
What’s the worst book you’ve ever read?
I didn’t finish it and don’t remember it.
What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?
“Remembrance of Things Past,” by Marcel Proust.
What do you plan to read next?
Reviews of “Six Amendments.”
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