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Photo of Studs Terkel by Robert BirnbaumLouis "Studs" Terkel (born May 16, 1912) is a United States writer and broadcaster.
Terkel was born in New York City, but at the age of ten, he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent most of his life. He attended the University of Chicago, and received a law degree in 1934, but chose not to pursue a career in law. Instead, he joined the WPA Writers Project, working in radio, ranging from voicing soap opera productions, announcing news and sports, presenting shows of recorded music, as well as writing radio scripts and advertisements.
Terkel published his first book Giants of Jazz in 1956. He followed it with a number of other books, most focusing on the history of the USA, relying substantially on oral history. He also serves as a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Chicago Historical Society.
Studs Terkel got his nickname because he reminded people of the fictional character Studs Lonigan, of James T. Farrell's trilogy. Terkel has never learned to drive.
Studs Terkel is perhaps best known for his 1970 book Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, in which he assembled recollections of the Depression from across a wide spectrum of society, from Okies to prison inmates, to the better off. Terkel won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for his similarly formatted book The Good War, which challenged the prevailing notion that World War II was a time of unblemished national solidarity, goodwill and unified purpose in contrast to the Vietnam era. In 1997, he was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Recently Terkel underwent successful open-heart surgery. At 93 years-old he is one of the oldest people to undergo this form of surgery and doctors reported his recovery to be remarkable for someone of his advanced age.
Selected works
- Giants of Jazz - 1957
- Working - 1974
- Division Street: America - 1967
- Hard Times - 1970
- The Good War - 1984
- Chicago - 1986
- The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream - 1988
- Race: What Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession - 1992
- Coming of Age: The Story of Our Century by Those Who’ve Lived It - 1995
- My American Century - 1997
- The Spectator: Talk About Movies and Plays With Those Who Make Them - 1999
- Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith - 2001
- Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times - 2003
- And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey - 2005
External links
- rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/amw/amw_051202.rm?start=00:39:00.0 Studs Terkel on Ayn Rand, copy-paste rtsp-links directly into any realplayer
- Studs Terkel, InDepth of C-SPAN, 2001
- Direct link to Studs Terkel Video on InDepth of C-SPAN