P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening [Paperback]

Studs Terkel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2008

The Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian and nonagenarian makes a selection of his favorite unpublished writings, broadcasts, and interviews.

Millions of Studs Terkel fans have come to know the prizewinning 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 deeply enjoyable writings for the first time.

The pieces in P.S. reflect Studs'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 Studs's finest interview with an author; pieces on the colorful history and culture of Chicago; vivid portraits of Studs'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 Studs's famous broadcast on the Depression, the very moving essence of what was to become Hard Times.

A fitting postscript to a lifetime of listening, P.S. is a truly Terkelesque display of Studs's extraordinary range of talent and the amazing people he found to talk to.

Editorial Reviews

From 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 This collection of previously unpublished essays and interviews shouldn't disappoint.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.
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From Booklist

Oral historian, writer of conscience, and raconteur-on-a-mission Terkel follows his vivid and affecting memoir Touch and Go (2007) with an electrifying set of found treasures: startlingly fresh and newly relevant essays and interviews that have never been published or that only appeared long ago in a strictly local venue. Terkel’s recovered 1961 conversation with James Baldwin is worth the price of admission, so sharply and devastatingly candid is Baldwin about racism’s heavy legacy of fear, lies, brutality, and oppression. Equally timely, if less eviscerating, is Terkel’s incisive conversation with lyricist E. Y. Harburg, who wrote the Great Depression classic “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” In tales of Chicago election shenanigans (’tis the season) and other crimes, Terkel writes with chagrin and bemusement of his hometown under the rule of Janus, the two-faced deity. Hilarious, wry, sorrowful, and prescient, this collection affirms Terkel’s great gift for tapping into the lifeblood of America and discerning, with heart and clarity, exactly what people suffer and how they lift themselves up and keep on keeping on. --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The; 1St Edition edition (November 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595584234
• ISBN-13: 978-1595584236
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #931,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Studs Terkel (1912-2008) was a free spirit, an outspoken populist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a terrible ham, and one of the best-loved characters on the American scene. Born in New York in 1912, he lived in Chicago for over eight decades. His radio show was carried on stations throughout the country.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gems From a Man Who Listened, January 23, 2009

By 

Patricia Kramer (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening (Paperback)

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."

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Studs lives on, October 31, 2008

By 

Michael H. Cary - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening (Paperback)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You can hear his voice, February 6, 2009

By 

James Hercules Sutton (Des Moines, IA (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening (Paperback)

on every page, and it's the voice of a skilled reporter, egging out secrets from those reluctant to talk. And like a good radio interviewer, Studs keeps the emphasis on the person he's interviewing, not himself. But this book, his last, seems to be a transcription of some broadcasts, and, as such, lacks the punch that his other books have. It's an afterthought to his work, and worth reading for that reason alone, because, for a time, we had among us a gentle, self-made humanist, a remarkable man.