Prologue: The funeral -- Isidore Mortem -- Demon boy prosecutor -- A dream come true -- At home on the bench and Park Avenue -- The trial of the century -- Worse than murder -- Immortality -- Beaten by the Harvards -- Apalachin and the Little Rock of the North -- Elevation and descent -- The forgotten man -- Hippieland -- The most cherished tenet -- Annus horribilis -- Some form of justice -- Keep the beacon burning -- Epilogue: "I can't believe I'm going to die"

"The first biography of the federal judge Irving Robert Kaufman (1910-92). Kaufman presided over the atomic espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1951 and sentenced them to death. The book also examines Kaufman's rise from poverty, his work as a celebrated prosecutor, his landmark opinions expanding civil liberties, and his often tragic personal life"--