Studs Terkel – författare

Division Street, Studs Terkel's first book of oral history, established his reputation as America's foremost oral historian and as "one of those rare thinkers who is actually willing to go out and talk to the incredible people of this country" (in the words of Tom Wolfe).Viewing the inhabitants of a single city, Chicago, as a microcosm of the nation at large, Division Street chronicles the thoughts and feelings of some seventy people from widely varying backgrounds in terms of class, race, and personal history. From a mother and son who migrated from Appalachia to a Native American boilerman, from a streetwise ex–gang leader to a liberal police officer, from the poorest African Americans to the richest socialites, these unique and often intimate first-person accounts form a multifaceted collage that defies any simple stereotype of America.As Terkel himself put it: "I was on the prowl for a cross–section of urban thought, using no one method or technique. . . I guess I was seeking some balance in the wildlife of the city as Rachel Carson sought it in nature. Revealing aspects of people's lives that are normally invisible to most of us, Division Street is a fascinating survey of a city, and a society, at a pivotal moment of the twentieth century.

The Pulitzer Prizing-winning author Studs Terkel is layed bare in an autobiography of modern times - the stirring story of a man whose life has been so vivid that its telling mirrors the events of a century. From Mahalia Jackson to Bertrand Russell, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Frederico Fellini, Studs has met them all and captured their voices for us. With the addition of a marvelous new postscript, Talking to Myself is as enjoyable now as when it was first published--a work that is as unusual as it is compelling.

Studs Terkel’s classic oral history of Americans’ working lives—and the inspiration for Barack Obama’s new Netflix series about work in the twenty-first century“Reading these stories, I started to consider my own place in the world, and understand how connected we are to one another. [Working] helped inform the choices I made in my own work.” —President Barack ObamaPerhaps Studs Terkel’s best-known book, Working is a compelling, fascinating look at jobs and the people who do them. Consisting of over one hundred interviews conducted with everyone from gravediggers to studio heads, this book provides a moving snapshot of people’s feelings about their working lives, as well as a timeless look at how work fits into American life.Working received rave reviews upon its initial publication, including from the New York Times Book Review, which praised its “incredible abundance of marvelous beings” and “very special electricity and emotional power,” and the Boston Globe, which called it a “magnificent book . . . a work of art,” adding, “To read it is to hear America talking.”Nearly fifty years after its initial publication, Working remains a deeply relevant American classic, one of the most important works of oral history ever published.

In this unique look at one of our most pervasive national myths, Studs Terkel persuades an extraordinary range of Americans to articulate their version of "The American Dream." Beginning with an embittered winner of the Miss U.S.A. contest who sees the con behind the dream of success and including an early interview with a highly ambitious Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terkel explores the diverse landscape of the promise of the United States—from farm kids dreaming of the city to city kids determined to get out, from the Boston Brahmin to the KKK member, from newly arrived immigrants to families who have lived in this country for generations, these narratives include figures both famous and infamous. Filtered through the lens of our leading oral historian, the chorus of voices in American Dreams highlights the hopes and struggles of coming to and living in the United States. Originally published in 1980, this is a classic work of oral history that provides an extraordinary and moving picture of everyday American lives.

Hope Dies Last is Studs Terkel’s inspiring new oral history of social action in America. An alternative, more personal history of the "American century," Hope Dies Last forms a legacy of the indefatigable spirit that Studs has always embodied, and an inheritance for those who, by taking a stand, are making concrete the dreams of today.For Terkel, these interviews represent a change that has taken place in the last few years of uncertainty in America. From a doctor who teaches his young students compassion, to the now-retired brigadier general who flew the Enola Gay over Hiroshima, these interviews tell us much about the power of the American dream and the force of individuals who hope for a better world. Terkel’s subjects express with grace and warmth their secret hopes and dreams, combining to tell an inspiring story of optimism and persistence that resonates with the eloquence of conviction.

The first revised and updated version of this 1970's cult classic. A rousing musical with a cast of twenty, Working is for anyone who has ever punched a clock, a cow or a supervisor-or wanted to. From the book by Studs Terkel. Adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso. Songs by Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz, and James Taylor. Runtime: 1:38

The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian talks with some of twentieth century’s most iconic musicians—“Riveting . . . Just about every interview has a revelation” (San Francisco Chronicle).  Through the second half of the twentieth century, Studs Terkel hosted the legendary radio show “The Wax Museum,” presenting Chicago’s music fans with his inimitable take on music of all kinds, from classical, opera, and jazz to gospel, blues, folk, and rock. Featuring more than forty of Terkel’s conversations with some of the greatest musicians of the past century, And They All Sang is “a tribute to music’s universality and power” (Philadelphia Inquirer). Included here are fascinating conversations with Louis Armstrong, Leonard Bernstein, Big Bill Broonzy, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Mahalia Jackson, Janis Joplin, Rosa Raisa, Pete Seeger, and many others.  As the esteemed music critic Anthony DeCurtis wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “the terms ‘interview’ or ‘oral history’ don’t begin to do justice to what Terkel achieves in these conversations, which are at once wildly ambitious and as casual as can be.” Whether discussing Enrico Caruso’s nervousness on stage with opera diva Edith Mason or the Beatles’ 1966 encounter in London with revered Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, “Terkel’s singular gift for bringing his subjects to life in their own words should strike a chord with any music fan old enough to have replaced a worn-out record needle” (The New York Times).  “Whether diva or dustbowl balladeer, Studs treats them all alike, with deep knowledge and an intimate, conversational approach . . . as this often remarkable book shows, Studs Terkel has remained mesmerized by great music throughout his life.” —The Guardian  “[Terkel’s] expertise is evident on every page, whether debating the harmonic structure of the spirituals or discerning the subtleties of Keith Jarrett’s piano technique . . . As ever, he is the most skillful of interviewers.” —The Independent  “What makes And They All Sang a rousing success isn’t just Terkel’s phenomenal range and broad knowledge, it’s his passionate love of the music and his deep humanity.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Bestselling oral history of what it was like to age in the 20th century - as told by those who lived through almost all of it - published to coincide with Terkel's 95th birthday year. in many ways a sequel to Studs' most famous book, Working, COMING OF AGE weaves the voices of 74 very different people - from an angry farmer to a resigned bank president; and those who were at the vanguard of their movements, be they trade unionists, gay rights activists or artists. Indispensable oral history from the undisputed king of the genre.

A beautiful paperback edition of Terkel's greatest hits. For this volume, Studs himself selected the best interviews from eight of his classic books: American Dreams, Coming of Age, Division Street, The Good War, The Great Divide, Hard Times, Race and Working - together with his original introductions to each book. Published in the year of teh great man's 95th birthday, it's a keeper from the United States' foremost oral historian and the bestselling author of 12 legendary books of oral history.

A collection of the Pulitzer-Prize winning oral historian's remarkable conversations with some of the greatest luminaries of theatre and film. Among the many highlights are Buster Keaton explaining the wonder of unscripted silent comedy and interviews with Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, and Tennessee Williams. Because Studs knows his subjects' work intimately, he asks precisely the right questions to elicit the most revealing responses.

The pieces collected here reflect Studs' wide-ranging interests and travels, as well as his abiding connection to his hometown, Chicago. A fitting postscript to a lifetime of listening, P.S. is a truly Turkelesque display of extraordinary range and talent, and the amazing people he found to talk to.

First published in 1970, Studs Terkel's Hard Times has been called a huge anthem in praise of the American spirit' (Saturday Review) and 'an invaluable record' (New York Times). With grace and compassion, Terkel evokes a mosaic of memories from artists, politicians, businessmen, writers, racketeers, speakeasy operators, strikers, farmers, people who were just kids and those who remember losing a fortune. Now, in a beautiful new illustrated edition, Studs's interviews are complemented by Farm Security Administration photographs from the Library of Congress.'

Chicago was home to the Pulitzer Prize winning Studs Terkel, who moved there in 1922 and made it his home until his death in 2008 at the age of 96. A tribute to the 'Second City' that is part history, part memoir and 100% Studs Terkel, the book is infused with anecdotes, memories and reflections that celebrate the great city of Chicago. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs that perfectly capture Chicago's unique beauty; here is a splendid evocation of Studs' hometown in all of its glory and imperfection.

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.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Good War: A masterpiece of modern journalism and “a huge anthem in praise of the American spirit” (Saturday Review).   In this “invaluable record” of one of the most dramatic periods in modern American history, Studs Terkel recaptures the Great Depression of the 1930s in all its complexity. Featuring a mosaic of memories from politicians, businessmen, artists, striking workers, and Okies, from those who were just kids to those who remember losing a fortune, Hard Times is not only a gold mine of information but a fascinating interplay of memory and fact, revealing how the 1929 stock market crash and its repercussions radically changed the lives of a generation. The voices that speak from the pages of this unique book are as timeless as the lessons they impart (The New York Times).   “Hard Times doesn’t ‘render’ the time of the depression—it is that time, its lingo, mood, its tragic and hilarious stories.” —Arthur Miller   “Wonderful! The American memory, the American way, the American voice. It will resurrect your faith in all of us to read this book.” —Newsweek   “Open Studs Terkel’s book to almost any page and rich memories spill out . . . Read a page, any page. Then try to stop.” —The National Observer

In a blend of history, memoir, and photography, the Pulitzer Prize winner paints a vivid portrait of this extraordinary American city.   Chicago was home to the country’s first skyscraper (a ten-story building built in 1884), and marks the start of the famed Route 66. It is also the birthplace of the remote control (Zenith) and the car radio (Motorola), and the first major American city to elect a woman (Jane Byrne) and then an African American man (Harold Washington) as mayor.   Its literary and journalistic history is just as dazzling, and includes Nelson Algren, Mike Royko, and Sara Paretsky. From Al Capone to the street riots during the Democratic National Convention in 1968, Chicago, in the words of Studs Terkel, “has—as they used to whisper of the town’s fast woman—a reputation.”   Chicago was also home to Terkel, the Pulitzer Prize–winning oral historian, who moved to Chicago in 1922 as an eight-year-old and who would make it his home until his death in 2008 at the age of ninety-six. This book is a splendid evocation of Studs Terkel’s hometown in all its glory—and all its imperfection.

A landmark reissue of Studs Terkel’s classic microcosm of America, with a new foreword by the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and co-creator of the Division Street Revisited podcast“Remarkable. . . . Division Street astonishes, dismays, exhilarates.”—The New York TimesWhen New Press founder André Schiffrin first published Division Street in 1967, Studs Terkel’s reputation as America’s foremost oral historian was established overnight.Approaching Chicagoans as emblematic of the nation at large, Terkel set out with his tape recorder and spent a year talking to over seventy people about race, family, education, work, prospects for the future—all topics that remain deeply contentious today. Subjects included a Black woman who attended the 1963 March on Washington, a tool-and-die maker, a baker from Budapest, a closeted gay actor, and a successful but cynical ad man. As Tom Wolfe wrote, Studs was “one of those rare thinkers who is actually willing to go out and talk to the incredible people of this country.”Most interviewees shared the hope for a good life for their children and the wish for a less divided and more just America, but the real Chicago street referenced in the title takes on a metaphorical meaning as a symbol of the acute social divides of the 1960s—and highlights the continued relevance of Terkel’s work in our polarized times.Now, over fifty years later, Melissa Harris and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mary Schmich have created the remarkable Division Street Revisited podcast, coming in January 2025, in which they have found and interviewed descendants of Terkel’s original subjects in seven rich episodes. Schmich’s foreword to the reissue and the extraordinary podcast—along with the new edition of Division Street—together demonstrate Studs Terkel’s prescience and the enduring importance of his work.

Die Anfange des Jazz und die Karrieren seiner ersten Stars waren wild: Bix Beiderbecke verlor haufiger einen Schneidezahn, den das Publikum dann suchen musste, denn ohne konnte er nicht weiter Trompete spielen. Joe Oliver, der King, machte sich nicht nur musikalisch breit: Mit zwei Litern Milch vertilgte er locker zwolf Hamburger. Dizzy Gillespie besorgte sich sein erstes Instrument im Pfandhaus. Und Billie Holiday kaufte von ihrer ersten Gage ein Sandwich und ein Huhnchen fur ihre Mutter. Studs Terkel, der sich selbst als Guerilla-Journalist bezeichnete, kannte zahllose solcher Geschichten uber die Gro en der klassischen Jazz-Ara aus erster Hand, lernte er doch viele personlich kennen. In seinen 13 virtuos geschriebenen und zeitlosen Portrats werden die Kunstlerinnen und Kunstler so lebendig, dass man glaubt, bei den vibrierenden Ursprungen des Jazz in New Orleans, Chicago und New York dabei gewesen zu sein. Mitrei ende Portrats von Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Bix Beiderbecke, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker und John Coltrane. Mit Illustrationen von Robert Galster.

”Detta är en bok om Amerika, om 30-talet och om oss själva - depressionen har allmängiltig betydelse därför att den visar hur nödvändigt det är att demokratin äger handlingskraft.”Ur Olof Palmes förord

”Hårda tider återger inte depressionsåren – den är dem.”Arthur Miller

”Läs en sida, vilken som helst. Försök sedan att sluta.”The National Observer

Wall Street, New York, en oktoberdag 1929. Börskraschen sätter punkt för det glada 20-talet. Miljoner amerikaner kastas ut i ett årtionde av arbetslöshet, svält, förtvivlan. Studs Terkel uppsökte några av dem som minns dessa hårda tider och lät dem tala fritt till hans bandspelare –tiggare, strippor, gangsters, politiker, skattmasar, affärsmän,hemmafruar, präster, skådespelare. Resultatet är inte enbart en rörande och upprörande fresk av livsöden och livsvisdomar utan också ett skickligt exempel så kallad ”oral history”. I förlängningen väcker boken också frågan: kan detta upprepas, och hur skulle det bli då?

”Detta är en bok om Amerika, om 30-talet och om oss själva - depressionen har allmängiltig betydelse därför att den visar hur nödvändigt det är att demokratin äger handlingskraft.”Ur Olof Palmes förord

”Hårda tider återger inte depressionsåren – den är dem.”Arthur Miller

”Läs en sida, vilken som helst. Försök sedan att sluta.”The National Observer

Wall Street, New York, en oktoberdag 1929. Börskraschen sätter punkt för det glada 20-talet. Miljoner amerikaner kastas ut i ett årtionde av arbetslöshet, svält, förtvivlan. Studs Terkel uppsökte några av dem som minns dessa hårda tider och lät dem tala fritt till hans bandspelare –tiggare, strippor, gangsters, politiker, skattmasar, affärsmän,hemmafruar, präster, skådespelare. Resultatet är inte enbart en rörande och upprörande fresk av livsöden och livsvisdomar utan också ett skickligt exempel så kallad ”oral history”. I förlängningen väcker boken också frågan: kan detta upprepas, och hur skulle det bli då?

First published in 1992 at the height of the furore over the Rodney King incident, Studs Terkel's Race was an immediate bestseller. Offering a rare and revealing look at how people in America truly feel about race, Terkel's candid interviews depict a complexity of thoughts and emotions and uncover a fascinating narrative of changing opinions. Preachers and street punks, college students and Klansmen, pioneering interracial couples, the nephew of the founder of apartheid, and Emmett Till's mother are among those whose voices appear in Race.