Book of the Day: Sam Ervin, just a simple country lawyer

Ervin, Senator Sam, Humor of A Country Lawyer (University of North Carolina Press, 1st ed., 1983). ISBN 0-8078-1566-7. Ervin (1896-1985) graduated the University of North Carolina in 1917 and was a combat soldier in World War I, receiving the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, and Two Purple Hearts. He graduated Harvard Law School in 1922 and while awaiting admission to the bar was drafted as a candidate for the NC House of Representatives. After service there, 1923-31, he was elected a criminal court judge (1931-37), and superior court judge (1937-43). In 1946 he won a special election to finish the congressional term of his brother Joe, and returned to private practice in 1947. In 1948 he was appointed an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. After the 1954 death of Senator Clyde R. Hoey, he was appointed to the US Senate, where his he won early renown as a foe of Senator Joe McCarthy. His twenty-year career was capped by his chairmanship of the committee investigation of President Richard Nixon’s misdeeds (1973). Retiring in 1974, he practiced law and wrote several books. This is by far the best, a memoir of his life and tales he heard along the way.

Ervin’s son, Sam III, followed his dad’s footsteps, serving in the legislature, superior court and US Court of Appeals before his death in 1999. His grandson, Sam IV, was elected the the NC Court of Appeals in 2008 and the Supreme Court in 2012.

Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, good condition, inscribed “To Bruce Wofford, with all good wishes” and dated October 23, 1983. HBB price: $40.