In January 2022, a textbook published in 1953 on jurisprudence was placed for auction at Bonhams. The unassuming maroon book appears like any other you may find in a law library or on a student’s bookshelf. And while textbooks can be notoriously pricey, they don’t usually sell for $44,062.50, as this one did. What makes this book so special and how does it connect the Cincinnati legal community to the highest court in the land and an American icon?
For nearly 40 years, Edwin “Terry” W. Patterson III served as the General Counsel for the Cincinnati Bar Association, before his retirement in May 2021. A career in law was a bit of a Patterson family legacy. 69 years ago, another Edwin W. Patterson, his grandfather, was the first Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia University Law School in New York City. While there, the elder Patterson wrote the book Jurisprudence: Men and Ideas of the Law for one of his classes.
Just a few years later, during the 1958-1959 school year, a law student named Ruth Bader Ginsburg enrolled in that very class.
According to the Bonhams auction listing, Justice Ginsburg’s copy of the book is “heavily underscored and annotated by [her] throughout, no doubt as she prepared for classwork and exams.” Justice Ginsburg originally began her legal education at Harvard Law School before transferring to Columbia after her husband accepted a job in New York City. While it is unknown if she was taught personally by Professor Patterson, his book remained in her collection until her death in 2020.
Professor Patterson began his education in his home state of Missouri before also finding his way to Harvard Law School, where he earned a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D) in 1920. He spent time as a professor in Texas, Iowa, and Colorado before landing at Columbia University in 1922, where he would remain until his retirement in 1957. Patterson became an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Virginia shortly thereafter, but very well may have encountered Justice Ginsburg, as he continued to teach a handful of classes at Columbia when she started.
Whether or not they ever personally crossed paths, Professor Patterson’s book remains a “rare and important artifact of Ginsburg’s evolution as a jurist,” according to the auction listing.
The younger Patterson discovered the auction on a whim. His partner Susan Rogers had seen an article in the New York Times about the auction of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal library. During lunch one day, they decided to take a scroll through the offerings. As it would turn out, Lot #4 had a very familiar name in it.
“She just handed me the phone and said, ‘Look, it’s your grandfather’s book,’” said Patterson. “I was stunned.”
While seeing his grandfather’s work in the personal collection of a Supreme Court Justice was a pleasant surprise, it was made even more surprising by the eye-watering price it fetched at auction. After seeing the $44,062.50 price tag for this book, Patterson was able to find some copies online for less than $50. Though it is unlikely those copies had as interesting a backstory.
Professor Patterson’s book continued to educate law students for decades. According to Terry, the family continued to receive royalties for Jurisprudence long after the professor’s death in 1965; the last royalties were received in 1994, 41 years after the book’s publication.
While discussing the auction with his brother Frank, Patterson mentioned that he had a copy of the same edition of the book sold at auction with the bonus of being signed by the author himself. In response, Frank quipped that they should sell it at half price — a relative bargain at $22,000.
Jordan is a paralegal with the CBA.