Looking for something out-of-the-ordinary in nonfiction? Bryan A. Garner’s newest book, The Etcher: The Life and Art of Oskar Stoessel (Godine, 2025), warrants a place on any lawyer’s reading list. Why? Here are five reasons:
- Garner’s Precision with Words
Dean Robert B. Ahdieh of Texas A&M School of Law sums it up: Garner “is as careful a master of the written word as one can imagine.” But The Etcher shows more than editorial precision—this new biography is a testament to Garner’s style, clarity, and narrative craft. - An Untold Supreme Court Story
Few know that a Viennese artist once etched the likenesses of U.S. Supreme Court justices during the turbulent era of the Hughes and Stone Courts in the early 1940s. This book uncovers how a portrait etcher found himself negotiating the protocols of America’s highest tribunal—a real-life legal drama hiding in plain sight. - The Refugee Artist’s Odyssey
Not just legal history: There’s poignancy in Oskar Stoessel’s journey. Garner details the escape of a Jewish artistic genius from the Anschluss in Vienna and all the difficulties that followed. The personal story is full of artistic ambition, dashed hopes, and resilience. Oh, and a moving love story as a subplot. - A Vigorously Written Cultural Recovery
Last week, The Spectator hailed the book for its vitality and its richness: “Bryan Garner has performed a remarkable act of cultural recover with his vigorously written new book . . . . This is also an art book. It contains one striking, soulful etching after another.” The art and writing meld: it’s rare to find such harmony between beautifully reproduced images and crisp prose. - The Transformative Power of Letters
What ties the entire story together, and made the book possible, is the practice of letter-writing. Garner documents Stoessel’s correspondence—by turns desperate, hopeful, artistic, and formal—showing how the art of letter-writing can be ennobling and transformative for both writer and recipient.
The Etcher is much more than biography or art history—it’s an intersection of law, art, and the written word. But above all, it’s a book that lingers long after the last page.
Here’s how to order–The Etcher: The Life and Art of Oskar Stoessel