The biography of Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court took eight years from conception to publication (in May 2010). What made the project worthwhile were Stevens's intriguing background in Chicago and the evidence that Gene Schlickman and I discovered of his mastery of the craft (not to say craftiness) of the law. One of the most arresting images in the book is the reproduction of the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune of May 15, 1933, which juxtaposes the headlines "Hitler Evokes World Crisis" and "Jury Convicts Ernest J. Stevens." The downfall of the Stevens family real estate and insurance empire played out in screaming newspaper headlines while Justice Stevens was a boy or 13 and 14. Regarding the craft of judging, at which Stevens has few peers, the wonderfully talkative clerks who wrote memos to their boss, the late Justice Harry Blackmun, provided vivid insights into Stevens's role on the Court, a role he still actively plays as he approaches age 90 on April 20. Anyone who cares about having independent judges should wish Justice Stevens happy birthday.