The nutshell biography, of course, is familiar. Born in 1872, Learned Hand grew up in Albany, New York, the offspring of locally prominent families and a long line of lawyers and judges. Graduating from Harvard College in 1893, he studied at Harvard Law School and then returned to Albany where he practiced for several years. In 1902 he married and moved to New York City. Building a modestly successful law practice, he developed a wide range of friends and acquaintances, became increasingly active in progressive politics, and in 1909 was appointed United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Although he remained politically active for another decade, Hand gradually withdrew from politics shortly after World War I. His reputation as a judge began to grow, and in 1924 he was promoted to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. There, during the next thirty-seven years, he reigned as the most widely respected judge in the lower federal courts and, in some people's minds, in the entire federal judiciary. Twice he was almost appointed to the Supreme Court, but both times the nomination escaped him. Surprisingly for a lower court judge, he developed a national reputation, the result of his exceptional judicial stature and the powerful resonance of his public speeches and writings. A passionate advocate of "judicial restraint," a firm believer in democratic government, and an intellectual skeptic with a fervent commitment to freedom of speech and thought, the elderly judge ended his long and illustrious career widely known, admired, and respected. Gunther is fascinated by Hand's personality, particularly by what he sees as his sense of being a social outsider and his "extraordinary self-doubts and anxieties." 8 Hand, he tells us, had an "almost masochistic penchant for self-doubt and self-criticism." 9 Gunther sensitively traces this quality to the demanding traditions and expectations of his family, his position as "the precious male" surrounded and "spoiled" by the family's several women, and a religious upbringing that "transmuted" the fear of God and Hell into "an anxious sense of duty." 10 Most significantly, he also traces it to his father's local prominence and then sudden death when Learned was only fourteen and to "the image of paternal perfection" that 7. GUNTHER, supra note 1, at 639-52. 8. Id. at 4. For his general sense of being an "outsider," see, e.g., id. at 4-13, 26-31, 152, 154.