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The Making of a Country Lawyer: An Autobiography

The Making of a Country Lawyer: An Autobiography
By Gerry Spence

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The Making of a Country Lawyer is the firsthand account of a beloved American attorney, a modern-day folk hero, a man who has devoted his life's work to the downtrodden and damned. It is the story of a wayward son who, at the age of twenty, suffered an immense and tragic loss. It is this single dark moment in Spence's life that transformed him, preparing him to be a trial lawyer, eventually handling such landmark cases as the defence of Randy Weaver and the vindication of Karen Silkwood.

This is the stirring memoir of a man who has captured the American imagination at a time when our belief in our values and in ourselves has been shaken to the core, told as only Gerry Spence can.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #177825 in Books
  • Published on: 1997-10-15
  • Original language: English
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 448 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Spence (How to Argue and Win Every Time) has composed a formidable autobiography, a striking evocation of the closing of the frontier in the Wyoming of the 1930s and '40s. It's also a penetrating look into the heart of a youth torn between the lure of the flesh and the evangelicalism of his mother, between the emotional pull of helping the downtrodden and the intellectual realization that in our society power lies with the rich. The climactic event of his youth was the suicide of his mother in 1969, who hoped he would become a clergyman?a tragedy he simplisitically and egotistically blamed on himself and his dissolute lifestyle, assuming a guilt that was to plague him for years. It is also the story of his two marriages, the first contracted when he and his bride were both 19, the second to a formerly married woman whom he credits with saving his life. He also chronicles several of his cases, and it is interesting to see him at work, from his first halting appearances in court to his assured performances in later years. One wonders if the title of his book is intended as irony, for the multimillionaire Spence is a "country lawyer" the way Nieman-Marcus is the proprietor of a country store. But his story, with dozens of family photos, is a major bit of Americana.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Lawyer Spence, the best-selling author of How To Argue and Win Every Time (St. Martin's, 1995), limns his climb to the top. A 300,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Spence may be a "country lawyer," but he's no rube. Fresh from a stint on best-seller lists with How to Argue and Win Every Time (1995), he's back with a lively autobiography--or partial autobiography. There's a bit of bait-and-switch here: the book ends 25 years ago, when Spence stopped representing banks, insurance companies, and other "non-breathers" (his term), so it includes only passing references to the high-visibility cases--Karen Silkwood, Miss Wyoming vs. Penthouse, Imelda Marcos, Randy Weaver--that made him a celebrity lawyer. (One suspects the sequel's contract has already been inked.) This volume covers Spence's first 40-plus years: childhood and bad-boy adolescence in small-town Wyoming; college and law school at the University of Wyoming; marriage and children; two terms as GOP county prosecutor; success as a plaintiff's attorney, which attracted the "non-breather" clients; alcohol abuse; and a passionate affair, divorce, and remarriage. Driving the narrative--and its author's life--is Spence's guilt over his deeply religious mother's startling suicide when he was 20. In print as in the courtroom, Spence is an engaging storyteller with a gift for aphorism. Expect substantial interest. Mary Carroll