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71 Nw. U. L. Rev. 17 (1976-1977)
Wigmore's Legal Novels Revisited: New Resources for the Expansive Lawyer

handle is hein.journals/illlr71 and id is 21 raw text is: Copyright 1976 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A. Northwestern University Law Review Vol. 71, No. 1 WIGMORE'S LEGAL NOVELS REVISITED: NEW RESOURCES FOR THE EXPANSIVE LAWYER Richard H. Weisberg* Some years ago, in this journal, John H. Wigmore published a list of those novels which he thought any lawyer in search of enlight- enment and enjoyment could not afford to ignore.' To this effort was added a brief explanation of why this body of literature merited the serious attention of men whose minds, after all, were professionally committed to the seemingly more real problems of everyday trans- actions. For many reasons, both Wigmore's list and his accompanying explanation now seem ripe for renewed attention as well as revision. Revision not only because the novels of the decades since his article's appearance have shown a remarkable fascination for the law in their own right, but also because there were many relevant works then written which Wigmore disregarded due to their as yet untranslated or unpublicized character. And renewed attention, because the idea underlying the eminent legal scholar's compilation-that every law- yer must be acquainted with certain fictional works by virtue of his special professional duty to be familiar with those features of his profession which have been taken up into general thought and litera- ture (emphasis Wigmore's)2--seems all too novel, even somehow shocking. For, at a time when the social scientist successfully courts and engages the legal profession, that intimate humanistic friend of the lawyer whom Wigmore took as a welcome and constant companion now has virtually surrendered to the empirically-armed rival. There can be little doubt (particularly in light of some of the excellent scholarly works by lawyers about literature which form a separate * M.A., Ph.D., Cornell (French and Comparative Literature); J.D. Columbia Law School. The writer, a member of the New York State Bar, has taught literature at the University of Chicago, and is currently a Fellow at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell. I Wigmore, A List of One Hundred Legal Novels, 17 ILL. L. REV. 26, 27 (1922), reprinted, with corrections, from Wigmore, A List of Legal Novels, 2 ILL. L. REv. 574 (1908). 2 Id. at 28.