P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening

By Studs Terkel

Book Overview

This "electrifying" collection of unpublished work demonstrates the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's "great gift for tapping into the lifeblood of America" (Booklist).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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1595584234
• ISBN13: 9781595584236
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Gems From a Man Who Listened

Another amazing collection of work by Studs Terkel. In the light of the inauguration of Barack Obama, the most fascinating section is the interview with James Baldwin in 1961. "Time is always now. I think everybody who's thought about his own life knows this. You know you don't make resolutions about something you're going to do next year. No. You decide to write a book? No. The book may be finished twenty years from now, but you've got to start it now." The last section in the book is a transcript of the production of "Born to Live" which Studs played on his radio show on New Year's Day for 31 years. I was able to find it on line and listen. Here is one of the quotes of a prayer offered by Reverend William Sloane Coffin Jr in the production. "Grant us grace to quarrel with the worship of success and power, with the assumption that people are less important than the jobs they hold. Grant us grace to quarrel with the mass culture that tends not to satisfy, but exploit the wants of people; to quarrel with those who pledge allegiance to one race, rather than the human race. Lord, grant us grace to quarrel with all that profanes, and trivializes, and separates men."

Studs lives on

Studs was the greatest of Chicago's 20th century icons. Do take the time to read his last work - which encompassed various parts of his career. Definitely yet another must read.