Perseus Academic: First Amendment Felon by Robert Sherill

Frank Wilkinson was one of the staunchest defenders of the First Amendment. This is his story.

Frank Wilkinson's life was a David-and Goliath battle against the enemies of the First Amendment. In 1961, with the help of the Supreme Court, he was railroaded and jailed at the hands of the House Un-American Committee—a body he spent years denouncing and was credited with helping abolish after its demise in 1975. One of the principal foes of J. Edgar Hoover, Wilkinson's FBI dossier was more than 130,000 pages long.

In this lively, witty biography by legendary journalist Robert Sherrill, Wilkinson comes to life as a man who went from being a college playboy to one of history's greatest and most tireless defenders of free speech in America.

Robert Sherrill covers corporate malfeasance for The Nation. He was formerly editor of the Texas Observer, chief of the Miami Herald's Washington bureau, and a reporter for the Washington Post. He has written numerous books on on politics and society.

Robert Sherrill lives in Tallahassee, FLorida. He is a former editor of Texas Observer, DC Bureau chief for The Miami Herald, a reporter for the Washington Post, contributor to the New York Times, and has been a long-time contributor to The Nation, where he is currently a contributing editor. He has written numerous books on politics and society, including The Drugstore Liberal (1968), Military Justice Is To Justice as Military Music Is To Music (1970), The Saturday Night Special (1973), The Last Kennedy (1976) and The Oil Follies of 1970–1980: How the Petroleum Industry Stole the Show (And Much More Besides) (1983).