{"id":4702,"date":"2004-02-03T22:29:15","date_gmt":"2004-02-04T02:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2004\/02\/03\/poet-lawreates-indeed-and-in-"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:59:04","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:59:04","slug":"poet-lawreates-indeed-and-in-print","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/02\/03\/poet-lawreates-indeed-and-in-print\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet Lawreates, Indeed, and In Print"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"masks\" \u00a0 I’m pleased to be able to share some good news about lawyers with you, for a change. Through the magic of the internet, law Professor James R. Elkins<\/a> (College of Law, West Virginia University) discovered that we both share an interest in ethics and poetry and contacted me last week. In addition to discovering a wealth of materials on legal ethics and morality, I was delighted and humbled by Prof. Elkins’ amazing creation – Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry<\/font><\/a>. <\/font><\/p>\n

I immediately shared this great resource with that dapper, cultured weblawger, George Wallace<\/strong>, who had this to say in a posting today at The Fool in the Forest<\/a>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Poet Lawreates<\/font><\/h3>\n

[David called my attention to] <\/font>Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry<\/font><\/a><\/font><\/font> — a most impressive compilation of lawyer-poets and poet-lawyers both contemporary and not. The familiar suspects are represented — Wallace Stevens, Archibald MacLeish, even Francis Scott Key [whose poetry we learn was edited after his death by U.S Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney] — as are many more obscure figures. I can see that I’m likely to lose significant amounts of time in exploring Professor Elkins’ site on my return, and I commend it to you in my absence.<\/font><\/p>\n

Professor Elkins has an array of other material posted dealing with the intersection of law and Culture. I’m particularly curious about his discussions of <\/font>Lawyers and Mythology<\/font><\/a>. A thorough directory of the professor’s online offerings can be found <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, Prof. Elkins sent me the following good news: “Off the Record: An Anthology of Poetry By Lawyers<\/strong>” is now at the printer and will appear later this month as Volume 28 of the Legal Studies Forum<\/font><\/a>. If you know of anyone interested in this curious, historical first — the first-ever published collection of poetry by lawyers which gets beyond the rather stale notion of “legal verse”– let me know.” [update<\/strong><\/em>: see our posting “every law library needs this volume<\/a>” announcing the publication of Vol. 28, March 11, 2004] <\/font><\/p>\n