Marvin Chirelstein

• Pages: 5-5
• Author: Marvin A. Chirelstein,Lawrence Zelenak

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MARVIN CHIRELSTEIN

This Sixteenth Edition of Federal Income Taxation is the third

since the death of Marvin Chirelstein in 2015. From its original

publication in 197 7, Chirelstein’s “little book” (as he l iked to call it)

about the income tax has had a deep influence on generations of law

students, and perhaps an even deeper influence on their teachers

(including, in both capacities, the co-author of the present edition).

Chirelstein’s guide to the law of contracts, Concepts and Case

Analysis in the Law of Contracts, has been similarly influential in its

field. He was much more, however, than the author of the two books

for which he is best known. He knew everything about the history of

boxing and baseball, seemed to have the complete works of Gerard

Manley Hopkins committed to memory, and enjoyed playing in string

quartets. He cared passionately about the integrity of the income tax,

which he continued to defend long after his official retirement. He

wrote in an unmistakable vo ice, with clarity, grace and wit (and not

just about tax and contracts—take a look at his last published essay,

“Bork, Dworkin, and the Constitution,” 17 Gre en Bag 2d 17 (2013)).

He belongs on the short list of funniest law professors of all time

(despite, or perhaps because of, his almost never cracking a smile).

And underneath a somewhat gruff exterior, he was one of the kindest

persons his co-author has ever met.