Oliver Wendell Holmes

This entry covers two Oliver Wendell Holmeses, father and son. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) was a Boston physician, Harvard professor of anatomy and one of the most popular American writers of his day; his essays The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table and poems such as Old Ironsides and The Deacon's Masterpiece, the one-hoss shay, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, which he named. His son Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) fought in the Civil War, wrote The Common Law and The Path of the Law, and served on the United States Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932, where his dissents on free speech made him the most celebrated American judge.