John D. Voelker (June 19, 1903[1]–March 19, 1991), better known by his pen name Robert Traver, was an attorney, judge, and writer. He is best known as the author of the novel, Anatomy of a Murder published in 1958. The best-selling novel was turned into an Academy Award nominated film -- directed by Otto Preminger and starring Jimmy Stewart -- that was released July 1, 1959. Duke Ellington wrote the music for the movie. It is critically acclaimed as one of the best trial movies of all time.
Anatomy of a Murder is based on a real homicide and subsequent trial that occurred in Big Bay, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the early morning of July 31, 1952.[2] Coleman A. Peterson, a lieutenant in the Army, was charged with murdering Maurice Chenoweth. The alleged motive was revenge for the rape of Peterson's wife by Chenoweth. Voelker successfully defended Peterson who was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
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Voelker was born in Ishpeming, Michigan and spent most of his life there. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1928 and practiced law for a time in Chicago, Illinois before tiring of city life and returning to Ishpeming to enter private practice. Later, he was elected to the office of Marquette County prosecutor. In 1957, he was appointed the 74th justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, and was subsequently reelected to that position. After the success of his novel, Anatomy of a Murder, Voelker retired from the court in 1959 in order to write full-time and to fish at his beloved Frenchman's Pond.[3]
Thomas M. Cooley Law School, one of the largest law schools in the United States founded in Lansing, Michigan by a former Michigan Supreme Court Justice, names its various graduating classes after prominent Michigan jurists. In May 1997, Thomas M. Cooley Law School graduated the "John D. Voelker Class."
Under the pen name Robert Traver, Voelker published a number of novels and short stories with legal themes, all with the small-town Upper Peninsula Michigan setting he was most familiar with. He chose to write under a different pen name in order to assure others that his agenda as a writer and a prosecutor were completely separate. He also published three books on fishing which are regarded as classics of the genre. The Escanaba River was the setting for many of his fishing stories.
Voelker was profiled as a subject of an On the Road segment with Charles Kuralt on the CBS Evening News and was regarded by Kuralt as one of the most interesting subjects that the correspondent interviewed in his career.
In 1964, John Voelker wrote Testament of a Fisherman, under the nom de plume Robert Traver. Using a minimum of prose, to a vast number of trout anglers, Voelker’s piece best exemplifies the love of this sport.
Testament of a Fisherman I fish because I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful and I hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters; [4]because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness; because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there; because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid; and, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant - and not nearly so much fun. (From Anatomy of a Fisherman by Robert Traver)