Fifty Five Men

First edition of Rodell's account of the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, based on the day-to-day notes James Madison took at the convention, inscribed by the author to the noted lawyer Thurman Arnold who is best known for his trust-busting campaign while serving in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration from 1938 to 1943.

The inscription reads: "For Thurman Arnold- With many thanks for his help and suggestions, & with the genuine hope that he will throw a few of the founding fathers in the faces of the Supreme Court next year. - Fred Rodell"

Born in Philadelphia, professor of law Fred Rodell (1907-1980) received his JD from Yale University in 1931, worked as a special legal advisor to Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania until 1933, then joined the faculty of the Yale Law School. Becoming a full professor in 1939, he remained at Yale until 1973, when he retired and received an honorary LL.D. from Haverford College. During his career, Rodell also wrote for the Chicago Times, was Director of Cooperative Consumers, Inc. in New Haven, CT (1941-45), served as contributing editor for Progressive magazine (1943-?), worked at the ACLU, and wrote much legal journalism. Other works by Rodell include Woe Unto You Lawyers (1939) and Nine Men: a Political History of the Supreme Court from 1870 to 1955 (1955).

Thurman Wesley Arnold (1891-1969) served as Assistant Attorney General and headed the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice-spearheading the campaign against corporate monopoly carried on by President Franklin Roosevelt's administration. After he began devoting himself to government work under the New Deal, he accepted the aforementioned appointment in March 1938 from President Roosevelt. With the economy still depressed in 1938 despite efforts to promote recovery, the Roosevelt administration launched an attack on price-fixing and other anticompetitive business practices as part of its effort to reverse the downturn. Within three years, the Justice Department instituted more antitrust prosecutions than it had in the half century since the passage of the Sherman Act (1890). Arnold resigned in 1943 to become Associate Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Arnold left after two years on the Federal bench to form a law partnership with Abraham Fortas and Paul Porter in Washington D.C.

REFERENCES: "Fred Rodell collection" at TriCollege Libraries online; "Thurman Wesley Arnold" at Encyclopedia online.