Public Advocate
Olson, McKinley C.
Public Advocate TO LIFE, by Elmer Gertz. McGrawHill . 252 pp. $7.95. reviewed by McKinley C. Olson In any era, a distinguished autobiography of a human being like Elmer Gertz would be a...
...In To Life, Gertz puts it this way...
...He has also been an effective, successful proponent of fair employment practices...
...A disciple of Clarence Darrow, with whom his name has often been linked, Gertz was instrumental in securing the release of Nathan Leopold from prison, thus furthering the concept of compassion and rehabilitation...
...Most recently, he drafted and secured the passage of a new model Bill of Rights for the state of Illinois which has national implications...
...And his long, determined opposition to the death penalty gained national recognition with his successful defense of Jack Ruby in the Dallas slaying of Lee Harvey Oswald...
...Gertz symbolizes the other side of the Watergate coin in American life: he has been the tireless, willing, and able ally of those whose mark it has been to further the concept of an open society and to liberate the human spirit from constrictive and punitive molds that have sought to cripple and demean it—and, in the process, Gertz has served a host of liberal, legal, political, literary, and humane movements...
...Nearing seventy, Elmer Gertz continues to radiate remarkable energy, compassion, tolerance, and joy of life...
...Another mark of the man is that Gertz has been a successful, ongoing foe of cruel and unusual punishments...
...McKinley C. Olson, a former newspaperman, is a free lance writer based in Chicago...
...Henry Miller once wrote, in defense of one of his Tropic books, " I can say one thing for it unblushingly—compared to the atom bomb, it is full of life-giving qualities...
...I wanted to have cases worth winning, cases of substance and meanmg...
...At the least, the same can be said of To Life...
...no title could be more fitting for a book about and by Elmer Gertz than To Life...
...All . . . lawyers want to win their cases...
...reviewed by McKinley C. Olson In any era, a distinguished autobiography of a human being like Elmer Gertz would be a welcome arrival...
...Appearing now, in the shadow of Watergate, the Chicago attorney's modest but self-assured and entertaining book, To Life, has wholesome and healing qualities...
...It is a story filled with the vitality of family, friends, interests, loves, sinners and saints, the humble and the famous...
...He fought for opening the Chicago Bar Association to Negro membership and for open and public housing...
...These are some of the highlights of Gertz's narrative, in which the dominant themes—though marked by the human experiences of failure, death, loss, and sadness—are joy, faith, hope, charity, and love...
...A lifelong friend, defender, and champion of the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment, Gertz acquired fame as Henry Miller's lawyer in the landmark Tropic of Cancer case, which resulted in a decisive victory for freedom of speech and artistic expression...
...For me, the book has one flaw: I felt it was too short...
...In Chicago, where his roots run wide and deep, Gertz was brazen enough to jostle with the Chicago Tribune during the height of its power and reactionary heyday...
Vol. 38 • December 1974 • No. 12
