What a time for the world to lose Studs Terkel. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, activist and radio and television star died Friday in his adopted hometown of Chicago. Terkel was 96.
AP via Google News:
“A lot of people feel, ‘What can I do, (it’s) hopeless,’ ” Terkel told The Associated Press in 2003. “Well, through all these years there have been the people I’m talking about, whom we call activists ... who give us hope and through them we have hope.”
The tougher the subject, the harder Terkel took it on. He put out an oral history collection on race relations in 1992 called “Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About The American Obsession,” and, in 1995, “Coming of Age,” recollections of men and women 70 and older.
He cared about what divided us, and what united us: death — in his 2001 “Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith,” and hope, in his 2003 “Hope Dies Last.”
Terkel won a 1985 Pulitzer Prize for “The Good War,” remembrances of World War II; contrasted rich and poor along the same Chicago street in “Division Street: America,” 1966; limned the Depression in “Hard Times,” 1970; and chronicled how people feel about their jobs in “Working,” 1974.
[...] Andre Schiffrin — Terkel’s longtime editor, publisher and close friend who gave Terkel the idea for many of his books — said Terkel “had been in bad shape in recent weeks and he really felt that his life had come to an end. But he was as engaged as ever. He was a big fan of (Democratic presidential candidate Barack) Obama and he said one of the things that kept him going was that he wanted to see the results of the election.”
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By GrammaConcept, November 5, 2008 at 2:44 pm Link to this comment
Studs was a close friend of my father for at least 40 years…
He was a good and true and honest and helpful and inspiring and,
astonishingly creative, friend..
He, most certainly, will be remembered and will, absolutely, be missed…
See you next time, Studs…...Bon Voyage..
Report thisBy anon, November 5, 2008 at 7:27 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Four interviews with Amy Goodman at democracynow.org
Report thisFrom one of them: See, we’ve forgotten so many things. It’s not that; the kids are never told things, never told about the Depression, never told what it does to families. I saw it at the men’s hotel we ran, what happened with the guys, to their self-esteem. And finally, there came the government that saved industry. And the very children and grandchildren whose daddies asses were saved by big government condemn big government. And so, we have a non-memory.
http://www.democracynow.org/
2007/5/16/studs_terkel_at_95_ordinary_people
By tdbach, November 3, 2008 at 11:13 am Link to this comment
I love you, Studs. You must’ve sensed that the election was no longer in doubt, so you let go. I hope you’re right.
Thank you for everything.
Tom (a Chicagoan in Boston)
Report thisBy thebeerdoctor, November 2, 2008 at 8:17 am Link to this comment
Curiosity DID NOT kill that cat.
Report thisBy troublesum, November 1, 2008 at 8:52 pm Link to this comment
There’s a great conversation with Studs Terkel at http://www.patriotboy.blogspot.com
Report thisBy kath cantarella, November 1, 2008 at 1:18 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
You are someone i respect, Studs. Safe journey home.
Report thisBy JakesTake, November 1, 2008 at 9:02 am Link to this comment
His legacy remains. His work had a profound effect on so many people, myself included. We will miss him, but never forget him.
Report thisBy Jaded Prole, November 1, 2008 at 5:00 am Link to this comment
He always told it like it was. A real loss for all of us.
Report thisBy thebeerdoctor, November 1, 2008 at 4:42 am Link to this comment
Blessings for honesty. Blessings for integrity. Blessings for incredible humor.
Report thisI have no words.
By 123456, October 31, 2008 at 10:12 pm Link to this comment
He was a great and honest man. He’s one of those people who made this country a slightly better and more hopeful place.
Report thisBy Xntrk, October 31, 2008 at 9:37 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I was looking for a book by Grahme Greene this morning, and came across some of my worn copies of Stud’s many books. The books reminded me I had not heard or read his name lately in all my news gathering.
I wondered how he was doing.
Then, I went on line and read of his death.
It is a bleaker world for sure.
No other interviewer has ever made the ‘little’ man more relevant than Studs could with a few insightful questions.
The amazing people who inhabit the nooks and crannies of any city - and yet, we never meet them without help. Reading or listening to Studs’ ask questions of a cab driver or bartender or waitress, only to discover that his focus was on the most memorable event in a lifetime of memorable happenings. Not the rich and famous, but perhaps the tired Black Woman who helped desegregate schools in a racist corner of Tennessee or Mississippi.
Studs always took the time and the effort to uncover the story - whether anyone else saw the potential or not. He will be greatly missed and yet, I can pick up any of his books - They are timeless - and immerse myself once again in the journey of discovery made by Studs and his readers: One question at a time…
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