Would Alexander Bickel Have Been A Blogger?

I’ve long admired the legal scholarship of Alexander Bickel, and recently purchased a memorial pamphlet published by Yale Law School in 1975 after Bickel’s death in 1974 at the young age of 49. The back of the pamphlet has a complete bibliography of Bickel’s work, and I was interested in the mix of his law review articles, books, and shorter works.

Bickel wrote about 25 articles in law reviews over the course of his career, ranging from short contributions to full-length articles. He also wrote seven books, two of which were published after he passed away. In contrast, he wrote about 150 magazine articles, mostly in The New Republic. It’s an interesting mix: In a typical year, Bickel might have written one article, part of a book, and ten magazine articles. Although it’s hard to compare law review and magazine publications in terms of the numbers, I think it’s fair to say that short pieces for a large public audience were an important part of his work.