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My Own Words
by Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W.
Williams
c.2016, Simon & Schuster
$30.00 / $39.99 Canada
374 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
Please and Thank You.
Those were The Magic Words you learned at your mother’s
knee, the ones that opened doors and gained favors. That was
also when you learned something important, as you’ll see in
My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg (with Mary
Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams): letters, when properly
collected, can move mountains.
Born in working-class Brooklyn in 1933, Joan Ruth Bader was
her parents’ second daughter; sadly, their eldest died of
meningitis just 14 months later.
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Theirs was a close-knit neighborhood, and the family had
many of the luxuries of the day. Bader attended public
school a block from her home; there, because of other girls
in her class who shared her first name, she started using
her middle name “for more official purposes.” She was raised
to be independent and was an avid reader, a notably talented
storyteller, and she loved gymnastics but “was not…
especially fond of math.” And since she grew up in the
shadow of World War II and was Jewish, she was fully aware
of anti-Semitism.
Even as a child, in fact, young Bader chafed at inequality
and “hypocritical rules.” She was also eloquent in her
writing and was first published (in a Jewish Center
newsletter) at age 13. Her leadership skills apparent, she
entered Cornell University the fall after graduation from
high school; there, she was greatly influenced by two
teachers, novelist and European lit professor Vladimir
Nabokov, and constitutional scholar Robert E. Cushman. The
latter man “encouraged Ruth to go to law school.”
In mid-2003, co-authors Williams and Hartnett approached
Bader Ginsburg and pointed out that it was time for her to
tell her story, before someone else did. She had known both
Williams and Hartnett for years through mutual interests and
similar work, so “Without hesitation, I said yes to their
proposal.”
In her preface, author and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg says that My Own Words was meant to be written
after a planned biography but her co-authors “thought it
best” to wait on the biography until her “Court years neared
completion.” They “flipped the projected publication
order…”
You might wish they hadn’t.
You'll hang onto every word of Ginsburg’s life story. It’s
everything you’d expect from her, and it surely won’t
disappoint readers. What will, though, is that My Own
Words aren’t always her own words. Yes, you’ll
read transcripts of speeches by Ginsburg, legal briefs,
bench announcements, introductions, and wisdom inside law
review articles. Yes, you’ll see her fierce strength in that
which she firmly believed. But a good amount of this book
consists of verious-length essays, speeches, and articles
written by others about Ginsburg, including
things written by her co-authors. That could be a
disappointment; the written speeches and judgments are okay,
but a biography...? Wait for it.
This Is. Not. A bad book. It’s just not what you might
expect, so be warned. If you want more biography, fewer
essays, be patient; it’s likely to be coming. In the
meantime, My Own Words will please you.
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