Notes

• Tracks the personal odyssey of perhaps the least understood man in Washington, from his poor childhood in Pin Point and Savannah, Georgia, to his educational experiences in a Catholic seminary and Holy Cross, to his law school years at Yale during the Black Power era, to his rise within the Republican political establishment. It offers a window into a man who straddles two different worlds and is uneasy in both–and whose divided personality and conservative political philosophy will deeply influence American life for years to come. This book originated from a profile of Clarence Thomas that appeared in The Washington Post Magazine. In it, Merida and Fletcher, both Post staffers, both black, crafted a haunting portrait of an isolated and bitter man, savagely reviled by much of the black community yet not entirely comfortable in white society.–From publisher description