SOURCE: "The Speaking of Clarence Darrow," in American Public Address: Studies in the Honor of Albert Craig Baird, edited by Loren Reid, University of Missouri Press, 1961, pp. 29-53.

In the following essay, Rahskopf discusses Darrow's speeches and public addresses.

Students of public address are interested in "the American gadfly," as T. V. Smith dubbed Clarence Darrow, because speech was the principal medium by which he carried on his work. Darrow was not only a successful court room pleader; he was also a brilliant conversationalist and popular lecturer and debater, with a wide following drawn by his striking non-conformist views and his forthright, yet charming and human, manner of utterance. Though he aspired to be a writer and actually produced a considerable body of essay and narrative material, his success and reputation as speaker greatly overmatched his standing as author. He loved to talk; speech was the life-blood of...