539. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR., (1841-1935) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1902-1932) known for his vigorous opinions, often in dissent, a narrow constructionist and advocate of legislative prerogative, promulgator of the "clear and present danger" test for freedom of speech. Good content A.L.S. 1p. 8vo., Bromley Farms, Mass., Aug. 27, 1929 to a sixteen-year-old Seymour Halpern (1913-1997), who would go on to become a Congressman from New York from 1959 to 1957. Holmes writes, in full: "My Dear boy You are asking the impossible. Even if I knew you I should not undertake to decide for you how to direct your life. Knowing nothing of your character or your aptitudes I could not rationally advise you whether to go into the law, & it looks difficult when one is beginning - and it is. Even a gifted man may fail, but I think that quandary, if a man has courage the power to want something hard and to want it all the time, and has no marked defects of mind or manners, he is pretty sure to make a place for himself. I hope that you may do so. Loyally Ever O. W. Holmes." Halpern did not choose law school in the end, and eventually gravitated toward politics. Provenance: Carnegie Book Shop, 1953; Collection of Henry Luhrs. Light soiling, else very good. $500 - 600