Alan D. Bergman, Adopting Liberty: The Stephan Kinsella Story (2025) (pdf).
My wife, Cindy, and I have used for years Scott Tiras and Crystal Garrett of Tiras Wealth Management as financial advisers. They often offer us tickets to baseball and football games, which we usually decline, unless our son as in town, as we are not that interested. A while back they offered to have Alan Bergman, of Life Stories Preserved, prepare little biographies for us—the type of thing parents or grandparents give to their children and other family members to tell and preserve their life story. At first I was inclined to decline—I’m a writer, I thought, I can write my own memoir if I want to. And I’ve written a few biographical pieces here and there. 1 But my wife is not a writer and was interested in doing it, so she urged me to do it first for my story, and then assist Alan in preparing hers. And I figured, well, why not let someone else do the work of writing for a change.
So I worked over the last year with Alan on this book—him interviewing me and various family members and friends—my wife, my sister Crystal Schonian, my dad Norman Kinsella, my friend Tony Diehl, and Jeff Tucker. After some delays due to my own tardiness, it has finally been published in a handsome little 84-page hardback, with many photos and my Foreword.
I intended to keep this a private matter only for family and close friends, but at the risk of appearing self-indulgent, presumptuous, or narcissistic, I decided to post the PDF of the book here for any who are interested (e.g. law students, young libertarians, and so on). (As I note in the Foreword, “I was inspired in part by a recent book by libertarian law professorRandy Barnett, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist (2024), which is an interesting blend of memoir and discussion of his career and legal and libertarian views and work.”) That said, I have no plans to “officially” publish this humble little work or make it available in paper.
Alan suggested that I write a Foreword, but that I pare down my first draft since it contained “spoilers” as to the content to follow in the book. I append the brief Foreword, as published, below, followed by my original draft for those interested in this additional detail. Additional biographical material, much of it concerning my experiences in various libertarian-related intellectual groups and projects, is detailed in various biographical pieces on my site. 2
I also append below accumulated errata.
See also Kinsella Biography: Adopting Liberty.
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ADOPTING LIBERTY
The Stephan Kinsella Story
by Alan D. Bergman
Foreword
(as published)
I’ve published a great deal in the last few decades—books on law proper and libertarian and legal theory, scholarly articles in journals, and so on. If you asked me, I might at first say that I prefer to write about law and intellectual topics and not about myself.
But this is not quite true. On occasion I have found it appropriate to discuss my life, my personal views; my history and experience in my career, in America, in the world over the last few decades, and in the intellectual libertarian movement. This has often been in response to questions from interviewers or younger libertarians.[1]
As the following pages will detail, I’ve been fortunate to have lived a happy, successful and interesting life. As I am approaching 60, I find some people are occasionally interested in my story and views. So, when my financial advisers, Scott Tiras and Crystal Garrett of Tiras Wealth Management offered to have Alan Bergman prepare a short biography for me, I thought, why not? I can leave the writing to someone else for a change.
This biography covers my history, family, childhood, education, career, marriage, and more. In addition, given the important role libertarianism has played in my life, I also made a point to discuss, if only fairly briefly, some of my history and experience in libertarianism that some may find of interest as well. In this, I was inspired in part by a recent book by libertarian law professor Randy Barnett, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist (2024), which is an interesting blend of memoir and discussion of his career and legal and libertarian views and work.
Alan extracted many details from me as well as many close family, friends, and colleagues and has done an excellent job putting all this together. I hope my family and posterity, and any others out there who happen to be interested in my work, will enjoy and profit from this more personal slice of my life.
Stephan Kinsella
Houston, Texas
March, 2025
[1] See, for example, “How I Became A Libertarian” and “On the Logic of Libertarianism and Why Intellectual Property Doesn’t Exist,” both in my book Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023; www.stephankinsella.com/lffs) and other interviews and articles collected at www.stephankinsella.com/publications.
❧
ADOPTING LIBERTY
The Stephan Kinsella Story
by Alan D. Bergman
Foreword
(original draft)
I’ve published a great deal in the last few decades—books on law proper and libertarian and legal theory, scholarly articles in journals, and so on. If you asked me, I might at first say that I prefer to write about law and intellectual topics and not about myself.
But this is not quite true. On occasion I have found it appropriate to discuss my life, my personal views; my history and experience in my career, in America, in the world over the last few decades, and in the intellectual libertarian movement. This has often been in response to questions from interviewers or younger libertarians.[1]
As the following pages will detail, I’ve been fortunate to have lived a happy, successful and interesting life. As I am approaching 60, I find some people are occasionally interested in my story and views. So, when my financial advisers, Scott Tiras and Crystal Garrett of Tiras Wealth Management offered to have Alan Bergman prepare a short biography for me, I thought, why not? I can leave the writing to someone else for a change.
This biography covers my history, family, childhood, education, career, marriage, and more. In addition, given the important role libertarianism has played in my life, I also made a point to discuss, if only fairly briefly, some of my history and experience in libertarianism that some may find of interest as well. In this, I was inspired in part by a recent book by libertarian law professor Randy Barnett, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist (2024), which is an interesting blend of memoir and discussion of his career and legal and libertarian views and work.
❧
It is only in recent years that I have begun to look back on, to reflect on, and to see a picture of how my life developed. When I was young I was experiencing so much change and growth and adapting to each new thing that came along, trying to keep moving forward, developing, and progressing. Now I have more perspective on my life and foundations and with this comes a greater awareness of the arc of my life, and hopefully some wisdom. There is a reason younger people are sometimes interested in what their elders have to say.
My story may seem boring to some, as it is prosaic and “normal” in many ways—nothing really special, nothing “great,” other than some modest successes and flourishing. For me, this is good enough, and it’s probably more than most people are fortunate enough to achieve. Before diving into Alan’s text, a few personal ruminations and observations.
I have always been happy and optimistic, and have tried to appreciate how fortunate I have been—to have been born at the time I was, in America, in modern times (it seems like modern times to me, though of course this is a bit myopic), with health, and to wonderful parents. As I wrote in the Acknowledgments to my 2023 book on libertarian theory, “I am grateful to my birth mother, Gail Doiron McGehee, for blessing me with my adoptive parents; to my mom for taking me to the library as much as I wanted; to my dad for driving me to school so far away in another parish for so many years; and to Mrs. Reinhardt, a librarian at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, for recommending that I read The Fountainhead.”[2] In other words, I am glad I was adopted and very grateful to Gail, even though it was hard on her, as the pages below recount.
I had a happy childhood, and have always felt confident that I could do whatever I set my mind to. Although I was initially small and a late bloomer, and did have some occasional problems with bullies, I loved school and my childhood. I am so glad my parents put me in St. George and later Catholic High, even though the commute was difficult for both me and my dad, and it was more expensive than the local public schools. I excelled in school which gave me confidence and laid foundations that have permeated my life.
I was very fortunate also to meet and marry my wife, Cindy DeLaney. I do not know how it happened that we found each other; I think we may have each found the only other person in the State of Louisiana who was the right fit for each other. Because I was used to succeeding and good things happening to me for all my life, I perhaps took for granted, for many years, decades even, how fortunate I was to find and marry her, to build careers, life, and family together. But over the years I am more and more surprised at how well it worked out and how much I simply took all this for granted. I literally love and appreciate her and our life together more with every passing year.
Though I turned from engineering to law, I do not regret my initial path in engineering; it provided a good foundation that served me well in both my vocation—law—and in my avocation—my intellectual, libertarian, and scholarly interests.[3] I have sometimes wondered if I should have applied to Harvard or something more ambitious, for undergrad or law school, or become a theoretical physicist to try to solve thorny physics problems no one else seems to able to solve. Or perhaps I should have specialized in international arbitration instead of patent law, or become a law professor. I don’t know. But I really regret nothing, and doubt I have the mental firepower to really have become the world’s greatest physicist. I’m confident and sometimes cocky, but not delusional. I think I chose the right fields that are just stimulating and difficult enough for me that I could excel at and also enjoy them and find them challenging and interesting—in my vocation, first in oil & gas law and then in intellectual property law as a practicing attorney; and, in my avocation, in writing and developing libertarian legal and political theory. Of course, it is the latter that is my greatest love and passion, although I do really love law itself, both the practice and the institution and legal theory, just as I loved engineering and math and science. I’ve always loved learning, and excelling at these things.
I also treasure the fact that I’ve developed so many different groups of friends and networks over the decades, from various phases and aspects of my life. There is my family, including also for forty years my wife and her family; and also including my birth family for the last thirty years, especially my sister Crystal and our brother Rusty. Then my close childhood friends, such as John Caffarel and John Wax, and my high school teacher Brother Harold Harris. And then college friends, such as my former roommate Fernando Munoz and engineering friends like Ben Favrot and Chris LeBlanc and several others. And then there are legal friends, from my days in Houston and Philly, such as my late friend Lori Marlatt, Susan Stanton, Cory Fein, Jim Goolsby, and Leslie Ashby, from my days at Jackson Walker, and my old Jackson Walker bosses Lanny Yeates and Bill Norvell;[4] and from Philly, patent lawyer friends like Tony Diehl, Steve Mendelsohn, and Rob Rosenthal. From law school and grad school in London, friends such as LSU Law friends Paul Comeaux and Tony Tramontana and King’s College London friends Danesh Sarooshi and Bas de Regt.
And finally, from my various interaction with the Mises Institute and other libertarian groups and circles, many close and some very close friends such as Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Guido Hülsmann, Jeff Tucker, Jack Criss, Doug French, Lee Iglody, Jeff Barr, Vijay Boyapati, Juan Carpio, Greg and Joy Morin, Carl and Karen Bowen, Gene Epstein, and countless others too numerous to name. (I would normally say I know I am omitting many people, but my purpose here is not to thank people or be comprehensive; many others are mentioned in the Acknowledgements to my 2023 book Legal Foundations of a Free Society.) All have profoundly and immeasurably enriched my life.
When I look back on the sweep of this, I’m astounded by it. It is an amazing blessing. I do not know whether it is somewhat strange or rare to have so many multiple, meaningful, yet disparate and separate friend circles like this, or whether it is common, but I certainly value and appreciate mine. Maybe it just worked out that way.
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Alan extracted many details from me as well as many close family, friends, and colleagues and has done an excellent job putting all this together. The following pages flesh out many of the history, events, and details that I alluded to above. I hope my family and posterity, and any others out there who happen to be interested in my work, will enjoy and profit from this more personal slice of my life.
Stephan Kinsella
Houston, Texas
December, 2024
[1] See, for example, “How I Became A Libertarian” and “On the Logic of Libertarianism and Why Intellectual Property Doesn’t Exist,” both in my book Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023; www.stephankinsella.com/lffs) and other interviews and articles collected at www.stephankinsella.com/publications.
[2] Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society, pp. xxix–xxx.
[3] On career vs. calling, see Stephan Kinsella, “Career Advice by North,” StephanKinsella.com (Aug. 12, 2009; https://stephankinsella.com/2009/08/career-advice-by-north/); idem, “On the Logic of Libertarianism and Why Intellectual Property Doesn’t Exist,” text at n.2.
[4] I recently reconnected with Bill and recorded a discussion with him for my podcast, “KOL454 | Interview with my Patent Mentor, Bill Norvell, about Patent Law and Our Days Together,” Kinsella on Liberty Podcast (March 10, 2025).
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Errata
Errata for Alan D. Bergman, Adopting Liberty: The Stephan Kinsella Story (2025):
P. 84: the top photo was from London, not Iceland.
- See various biographical pieces on my publications page. [↩]
- Such as “How I Became A Libertarian,” first published in LewRockwell.com (Dec. 18, 2002), also in Stephan Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023); KOL455 | Haman Nature Hn 109: Philosophy, Rights, Libertarian and Legal Careers, discussing my legal career and my avocation and experience in the libertarian intellectual movement; “KOL454 | Interview with my Patent Mentor, Bill Norvell, about Patent Law and Our Days Together,” Kinsella on Liberty Podcast (March 10, 2025); “Memories of Meeting Rothbard in 1994“; “What Sparked Your Interest in Liberty?“; “The Genesis of Estoppel: My Libertarian Rights Theory“; “My Failed Libertarian Speaking Hiatus; Memories of Mises Institute and Other Events, 1988–
20192025“; “Interview by The Libertarian“; “Stephan Kinsella on the Logic of Libertarianism and Why Intellectual Property Doesn’t Exist,” an interview with Anthony Wile, originally published in The Daily Bell (March 18, 2012), also in Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023); “Faculty Spotlight Interview: Stephan Kinsella”; “Libertarians & the Religious Right: an Interview with Stephan Kinsella,” interview by Alberto Mingardi, Laissez Faire City Times, v. 2.39 (1999); “On Libertarian Legal Theory, Self-Ownership and Drug Laws,” interview by Anthony Wile at The Daily Bell (July 20, 2014), also in Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society; and others. [↩]
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