P.S.
Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
This “electrifying” collection of unpublished work demonstrates the Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s “great gift for tapping into the lifeblood of America” (Booklist).
Millions of Studs Terkel fans have come to know the prize-winning oral historian through his landmark books—“The Good War”, Hard Times, Working, Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, and many others. Few people realize, however, that much of Studs’s best work was not collected into these thematic volumes and has, in fact, never been published. P.S. brings together these significant and fascinating writings for the first time.
The pieces in P.S. reflect Terkel’s wide-ranging interests and travels, as well as his abiding connection to his hometown, Chicago. Here we have a fascinating conversation with James Baldwin, possibly Terkel’s finest interview with an author; pieces on the colorful history and culture of Chicago; vivid portraits of Terkel’s heroes and cohorts (including an insightful and still timely interview with songwriter Yip Harburg, known for his “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime”); and the transcript of Terkel’s famous broadcast on the Depression, the moving chronicle that would later develop into Hard Times.
A fitting postscript to a lifetime of listening, P.S. is a truly Terkelesque display of the author’s extraordinary range of talent and the amazing people he spoke to.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cleaning out the office after years of disuse was worthwhile for beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian Terkel (1912-2008), and even more so for the loyal readers who recently lost him. This collection of previously unpublished essays and interviews shouldn't disappoint. Much of the author's best stories come from his beloved hometown of Chicago, and "Dreamland" is a transporting example, about a 12-year-old Terkel and his big brother's habit of taking the wrong women home from the Dreamland ballroom. His 1961 interview with black author James Baldwin, covering music and politics, is both warm and bitingly honest: says Baldwin, "to be a Negro in this country is really just...never to be looked at." Another highlight, "A Gathering of Survivors," is a discussion of the Great Depression that's especially timely. In just a few pages, Terkel can effortlessly invoke laughter, tears and thoughtful wonder. Some pieces are less successful (an interview with lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" fame), but fans will be happy to sort them from the gems.
