Editing Learned Hand (section)

==Early life==
Billings Learned Hand was born on January 27, 1872, in [[Albany, New York|Albany]], New York, the second and last child of [[Samuel Hand]] (1833–1886) and Lydia Hand (née Learned). His mother's family traditionally used surnames as given names; Hand was named for a maternal uncle and a grandfather, both named Billings Peck Learned.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=3–5}}</ref> The Hands were a prominent family with a tradition of activism in the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. Hand grew up in comfortable circumstances. The family had an "almost hereditary" attachment to the legal profession<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=3, 7, 40}}; {{Harvnb|Griffith|1973|p=3}}.</ref> and has been described as "the most distinguished legal family in northern New York".<ref>Charles E. Wyzanski, quoted in {{Harvnb|Schick|1970|p=13}}</ref>[[Image:Samuel Hand.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Samuel Hand, Learned's father, was a successful lawyer who died at age 52.]]Samuel Hand was an [[appeal|appellate]] lawyer,<ref name="Schick1970-13">{{Harvnb|Schick|1970|p=13}}</ref> who had risen rapidly through the ranks of an Albany-based law firm in the 1860s and, by age 32, was the firm's leading lawyer. In 1878, he became the leader of the appellate bar and argued cases before the New York Court of Appeals in "greater number and importance than those argued by any other lawyer in New York during the same period".<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=7}}</ref> Samuel Hand was a distant, intimidating figure to his son; Learned Hand later described the relationship with his father as "not really intimate".<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=6}}</ref> Samuel Hand died from cancer when Learned was 14.<ref>{{Harvnb|Griffith|1973|p=3}}</ref> Learned's mother thereafter promoted an idealized memory of her husband's professional success, intellectual abilities, and parental perfection, placing considerable pressure on her son.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=6–9}}</ref>

Lydia Hand was an involved and protective mother who had been influenced by a [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] aunt as a child; she passed on a strong sense of duty and guilt to her only son.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=10–11}}</ref> Learned Hand eventually came to understand the influences of his parents as formative.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=4, 6, 11}}</ref> After his father's death, he looked to religion to help him cope, writing to his cousin [[Augustus Noble Hand]]: "If you could imagine one half the comfort my religion has given to me in this terrible loss, you would see that Christ never forsakes those who cling to him." The depth of Hand's early religious convictions was in sharp contrast to his later agnosticism.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=22}}</ref>

Hand was beset by anxieties and self-doubt throughout his life, including [[night terror]]s as a child. He later admitted he was "very undecided, always have been—a very insecure person, very fearful; morbidly fearful".<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=4}}</ref> Especially after his father's death, he grew up surrounded by doting women—his mother, his aunt, and his sister Lydia (Lily), eight years his elder.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=4–5}}</ref> Hand struggled with his name during his childhood and adulthood, worried that "Billings" and "Learned" were not sufficiently masculine. While working as a lawyer in 1899, he ceased using the name "Billings"—calling it "pompous"—and ultimately took on the nickname "B".<ref name="Schick1970-13" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Vile|2003|p=320}}</ref>

[[File:Albany Academy 1907.jpg|thumb|[[The Albany Academy]] pictured in 1907]]
Hand spent two years at a small primary school before transferring at the age of seven to [[The Albany Academy]], which he attended for the next 10 years. He never enjoyed the Academy's uninspired teaching or its narrow curriculum, which focused on [[Ancient Greek]] and [[Latin]], with few courses in English, history, science, or modern languages. Socially, he considered himself an outsider, rarely enjoying recesses or the school's military drills.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=20, 23–25}}</ref> Vacations, spent in [[Elizabethtown, New York|Elizabethtown]], New York, were happier times. There, Hand developed a life-long friendship with his cousin and future colleague Augustus Noble Hand, two years his senior.<ref>{{Harvnb|Griffith|1973|pp=3–4}}</ref> The two were self-confessed "wild boys", camping and hiking in the woods and hills, where Hand developed a love of nature and the countryside.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=20–22}}</ref> Many years later, when he was in his 70s, Hand recorded several songs for the [[Library of Congress]] that he had learned as a boy from [[American Civil War|Civil War]] veterans in Elizabethtown.<ref>Two were subsequently released commercially as part of a disc of American folksongs. See {{citation|title=Judge Learned Hand Turns Singer in New U.S. Album of Folk Music|date=May 11, 1953|newspaper=The New York Times|pages=1, 15}} Excerpts can be heard as part of {{citation|chapter-url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1064953|chapter=Learned Hand|last=Wade|first=Stephen|date=October 5, 1999|title=All Things Considered|publisher=NPR|access-date=July 27, 2008|archive-date=January 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125091605/https://www.npr.org/1999/10/05/1064953/learned-hand|url-status=live}} In 2013, [[The Green Bag (1997)|The Green Bag]] released "Songs of His Youth", a vinyl disc of several of the songs, along with some of Hand's in-studio commentary. {{citation| last=Davies|first=Ross|date=2013| title=Learned Hand Sings, Part One: Liner Notes for 'Songs of His Youth'|doi=10.2139/ssrn.2271070 |ssrn = 2271070}}</ref> After his father's death, he felt more pressure from his mother to excel academically. He finished near the top of his class and was accepted into [[Harvard College]]. His classmates—who opted for schools such as [[Williams College|Williams]] and [[Yale]]—thought it as a "stuckup, snobbish school".<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=26}}</ref>

=== Harvard ===
Hand enrolled at Harvard College in 1889, initially focusing on classical studies and mathematics as advised by his late father. At the end of his sophomore year, he changed direction. He embarked on courses in philosophy and economics, studying under the eminent and inspirational philosophers [[William James]], [[Josiah Royce]] and [[George Santayana]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=32–33}}</ref>

At first, Hand found Harvard a difficult social environment. He was not selected for any of the social clubs that dominated campus life, and he felt this exclusion keenly. He was equally unsuccessful with the [[Harvard Glee Club|Glee Club]] and the football team; for a time he rowed as a substitute for the rowing club. He later described himself as a "serious boy", a hard worker who did not smoke, drink, or consort with prostitutes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=26–30, 76}}</ref> He mixed more in his [[Sophomore year|sophomore]] and senior years. He became a member of the [[Hasty Pudding Club]] and appeared as a blond-wigged chorus girl in the 1892 student musical. He was also elected president of ''[[The Harvard Advocate]]'', a student literary magazine.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=30–31}}.</ref>

Hand's studious ways resulted in his election to [[Phi Beta Kappa]], an elite society of scholarly students.<ref name="Griffith1973-4">{{Harvnb|Griffith|1973|p=4}}</ref> He graduated with highest honors, was awarded an [[Master of Arts|Artium Magister]] degree as well as an [[Bachelor of Arts|Artium Baccalaureus]] degree,<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|p=32}}</ref> and was chosen by his classmates to deliver the Class Day oration at the 1893 commencement.<ref name="Griffith1973-4" /> Family tradition and expectation suggested that he would study law after graduation. For a while, he seriously considered post-graduate work in philosophy, but he received no encouragement from his family or philosophy professors. Doubting himself, he "drifted" toward law.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=40–43}}</ref>

Hand's three years at [[Harvard Law School]] were intellectually and socially stimulating. In his second year, he moved into a boarding house with a group of fellow law students who were to become close friends. They studied hard and enjoyed discussing philosophy and literature and telling bawdy tales. Hand's learned reputation proved less of a hindrance at law school than it had as an undergraduate. He was elected to the Pow-Wow Club, in which law students practiced their skills in [[moot court]]s. He was also chosen as an editor of the ''[[Harvard Law Review]]'', although he resigned in 1894 because it took too much time from his studies.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=46–47}}</ref>

During the 1890s, Harvard Law School was pioneering the [[casebook method]] of teaching introduced by Dean [[Christopher Langdell]].<ref name="Dworkin1996-333">{{Harvnb|Dworkin| 1996|p=333}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Carrington|1999|p=206}}</ref> Apart from Langdell, Hand's professors included [[Samuel Williston]], [[John Chipman Gray]], and [[James Barr Ames]]. Hand preferred those teachers who valued common sense and fairness, and ventured beyond casebook study into the philosophy of law.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=47–50}}</ref> His favorite professor was [[James Bradley Thayer]], who taught him [[evidence (law)|evidence]] in his second year and [[constitutional law]] in his third. A man of broad interests, Thayer became a major influence on Hand's jurisprudence. He emphasized the law's historical and human dimensions rather than its certainties and extremes. He stressed the need for courts to exercise [[judicial restraint]] in deciding social issues.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gunther|1994|pp=50–52}}; {{Harvnb|Griffith|1973|p=4}}</ref>

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