Based on a 2002 profile of the controversial Supreme Court justice from The Washington Post Magazine, a portrait of Clarence Thomas traces the personal odyssey of the African-American justice from his poor, rural Georgia upbringing to the pinnacle of judicial power, capturing a bitter, isolated, and conflicted man forced to straddle two different worlds. 60,000 first printing.A portrait of Clarence Thomas traces the odyssey of the African-American Supreme Court justice from his rural Georgia upbringing to the pinnacle of judicial power, capturing an isolated and conflicted man forced to straddle two different worlds.