The Making of a Country Lawyer

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


From Kirkus Reviews
The celebrated trial lawyer and TV commentator (With Justice for None, 1989, etc.) proves that even a shameless self-publicist can be likeable. This volume recounts the years before Spence gained renown for the Karen Silkwood, Randy Weaver, and other trials. His father, who lived into his 90s, was a lifelong model of decency; Spence's deeply religious mother, however, placed a burden of guilt on the son by committing suicide during his rebellious youth. Like many an autobiographer, Spence finds his childhood more interesting than his readers will, but with adolescence the narrative takes off. That his prose is melodramatic merely seems fitting; Spence's worldview is melodramatic. After a few youthful adventures along brothel-and-merchant-marine lines, he returns to his native Wyoming. While still in college, he meets and marries his first wife. He finds law school easy but the first few years of practicing hard. It will come as a surprise to those familiar with Spence's current social views that he served two terms as a vice-busting county prosecutor and ran for Congress in 1962 as a right-wing Republican; his drubbing in that race turned him to despair, drink, and evidently his famous concern for the ``little guy.'' He recalls with pride his record of vastly increasing jury awards to plaintiffs, but describes with shame his inadequacies as husband and father during those years. In the end, he runs off with his second wife, stops drinking with help from Alcoholics Anonymous, and lives happily ever after, more or less. In an age of self-justification, Spence casts a relentlessly cold eye on his bad behavior as family man, lawyer, and sometime politician. Some readers should, however, find inspiration in Spence's ability to level with himself and still get over his self- loathing, and others will at least enjoy his story. (60 b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"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...A major bit of Americana."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review

"[Spence's] book is a chronicle of a self-discovery, as well as the account of how a superstar learned his trade."-- Los Angeles Times

"Filled with wonderful yarns about [Spence's] boyhood and early career as a fledgling country lawyer. It is that rare autobiography that devotes little space to bragging."-- Seattle Times



Review
"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...A major bit of Americana."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review

"[Spence's] book is a chronicle of a self-discovery, as well as the account of how a superstar learned his trade."-- Los Angeles Times

"Filled with wonderful yarns about [Spence's] boyhood and early career as a fledgling country lawyer. It is that rare autobiography that devotes little space to bragging."-- Seattle Times



Book Description
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.



About the Author
Gerry Spence, writer, renowned trial attorney, and author of the national bestseller How to Argue and Win Every Time and From Freedom to Slavery, lives and practices in Wyoming.



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The Making of a Country Lawyer is, like Clarence Darrow's The Story of My Life, the firsthand account of a beloved American attorney, a modern-day folk hero, a man who has devoted his life's work to the innocent and the damned. It is the riveting life story of a man born to missionary parents in a small Wyoming town in the virulent year of 1929. As a boy, Gerry Spence memorized Scripture in Sunday school, sold fresh bouquets of sweet peas door to door, herded sheep, and prowled the brothels of the Old West before he was fifteen. Tragically, it is also the haunting story of a deeply sensitive twenty-year-old son who learned one October morning that his God-fearing mother, seemingly depressed by her son's waywardness, had shot herself in the mouth with her husband's hunting rifle. More than any other single event, it was this tragedy that transformed the young Gerry Spence and fashioned his view of the world. It allowed him to become sensitive to the feelings of society's castoffs and prepared him to be a trial lawyer, eventually handling such landmark cases as the defense of Randy Weaver and the vindication of a dead plutonium plant worker named Karen Silkwood. The Making of a Country Lawyer not only follows Spence through law school (after graduating first in his class, he initially flunked the bar!), but also chronicles his years as a young prosecuting attorney, his first cases, his successful battle with alcoholism, and his consuming love affair with the woman who would save his life.


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