John A. Farrell

John A. Farrell examines major political and legal figures through archival research. Clarence Darrow is his full-length portrait of the celebrated defence lawyer associated with the Scopes trial, labour cases, and arguments for civil liberties. Penguin Random House identifies Vintage as the paperback publisher and notes that the biography draws on previously unavailable material. Farrell presents Darrow as both a gifted advocate for unpopular clients and a complicated participant in the political and ethical conflicts of his time. Clarence Darrow won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography, extending Farrell's record of writing extensively researched public lives. His other subjects include congressional leader Tip O'Neill and President Richard Nixon, and his reporting earned major journalism honours. Across that work, Farrell combines narrative history with close attention to correspondence, testimony, institutional power, and the gap between public reputation and private conduct.