The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest book, New Yorker writer Wilkinson (The Happiest Man in the World) gives due praise to the influential American singer Pete Seeger, who humbly told his biographer that what's needed is a book that can be read in one sitting. It is just such a spirit of humility that emerges from Wilkinson's lovely and, indeed, brief profile of Seeger (who turns 90 in May), at once social activist, environmentalist and, above all, courageous musician, the peoples' singer, who wholeheartedly believed in his father's dictum that music, as any art, is not an end in itself, but is a means for achieving larger ends. Wilkinson's thorough research is artfully couched in his extended interviews with the singer on his wooded property in upstate New York, during which Seeger elucidates his storied genealogy, recounts his times with Woody Guthrie and describes his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 (the full transcript of which is reprinted as an appendix). Wilkinson's biography reads as lucidly as if we were there with him, listening to Seeger's history as he boils maple sap down to syrup and chops his daily quota of firewood. In Wilkinson's writing, one can almost hear Seeger's axe splitting the logs. (May)
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From Booklist

“Too much has been written about me, and at too great length,” says Pete Seeger, who turns 90 on May 3, 2009, and whose eventful life New Yorker contributor Wilkinson condenses into a one-sitting read (all Seeger thinks is necessary). Seeger’s life has been crammed with interesting activities and people. First among the latter is his father, composer and ur-musicologist Charles Seeger, whose journey to and away from communism prefigured his third son’s similar path; most famous among Seeger’s people is prolific protest singer Woody Guthrie. Freight-hopping minstrel at 20, top-of-the-charts record performer at 30, blacklistee scrambling to support his family at 40, voice of the civil-rights and antiwar movements thereafter, Seeger also built his family’s first home largely by himself, dreamed up a successful project to spur cleaning the Hudson River, and still boils his own maple syrup. His thousands of recordings go unappraised here, attesting the modesty he practices as an obligation more than a virtue. Wilkinson’s writing about him is modest, too: plain with a little clunky folksiness and reservedly though unmistakably affectionate. --Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (April 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307269957
• ISBN-13: 978-0307269959
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #41,108 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An American Icon and Folk Historian, May 17, 2009

By	rctnyc (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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This short biography describes Pete Seeger's evolution as a person and musician. It begins by describing Seeger's upbringing in a politically-aware, educated family that encouraged and developed his musical talents. After enrolling at Harvard -- where he was in the same class as JFK -- Pete decided that his life's work was as a cultural historian. He left college to travel around the country, and soon began composing and singing to earn a living, meeting and performing with Woody Guthrie and others at political rallies, union meetings and other places where ordinary people gathered. Pete fought in WWI and, after the war, along with three other folk musicians, formed the iconic folk group, The Weavers. Throughout his career, he studied and collected examples of traditional folk music, while adding his own compositions to the long line of American songs that stetched back beyond the Revolution to the colonial period. Pete viewed such music as the medium through which ordinary Americans recorded and expressed their feelings, experience, hopes and dreams. His family supported him in his endeavors, as well as in his efforts to build a home and life in the hills overlooking the Hudson River, in Beacon, New York, where he and his family still live.


Pete's political beliefs, and his courage in standing up to McCarthyism, are linked in Wilkinson's biography to his underlying philosophy, which views all people as members of a single spiritual community. Pete Seeger's goal has been to unite people of many backgrounds, classes, ethnicities, racial backgrounds and religions through the common vehicle of music, which he views as the expression of a common, human spirit. It is this common humanity, not a political ideology, that Seeger seeks to advance through his efforts as a writer and singer. Wilkinson allows Seeger to explain these motives and objectives in his own words.

A significant passage in the book describes Pete's response when, after a concert during the Vietnam era, a man came up and said that he'd come there that night to kill Pete, but had changed his mind. Pete sat down and talked with the man, and they sang "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" together. Afterwards, the man had said "I feel cleansed," and left quietly. This episode demonstrated the strength of Pete's faith in the transforming power of empathy and common bond forged by music. Rather than merely accept the man's tacit apology, or feel afraid, Pete tried to heal the man -- a Vietnam war vet -- and succeeded.

Wilkinson writes that Pete Seeger wished for him to write a biography that could be read in one sitting. This short book fills that bill. It is informative, entertaining and helps the reader to understand and appreciate the eras through which Pete has lived in his 90 years. An appendix containing Seeger's HUAC testimony during the McCarthy era allows the reader to evaluate for him or herself Pete's actions during that troubled period.

Although I do not agree with every political position that Pete has taken in his long life, he is in my estimation an ethical person and American patriot. His patriotism is about honor, integrity and justice, not ideology. Yet those who disagree with that assessment would also appreciate this biography, which is evenhanded, informative and fair. I'll bet that Pete likes it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intimate, June 28, 2009

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

Intimate in the title is the key to this book. The events of Pete Seeger's life are highlighted, many of which are well known, but the pearls of the book are the quotes that are included from their conversations as Seeger answered questions about his journey through life.

"People ask, is there one word that you have more faith in than any other word,"he told me, "and I say it's participation. I feel that this takes on so many meanings. The composer John Philip Sousa said,'What will happen to the American voice now that the phonograph has been invented? Women used to sing lullabies to their children.' It's been my life work, to get participation, whether it's a union song, or a peace song, civil rights, or a women's movement, or gay liberation. When you sing, you feel a kind of strength; you think, I'm not alone, there's a whole bunch of us who feel this way. I'm just one person, but it's almost my religion now to persuade people that even if it's only you and three others, do something. You and one other, do something. If it's only you, and you do a good job as a songwriter, people will sing it."

And the pictures; they show a man working hard for that participation from himself and from others with grace and joy and sticking by what he believes is right no matter what. Pete Seeger is a man to be thanked and copied, we need more like him.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars delicious and speedy biography, September 24, 2009

By	Michael R. Delahunt "Reidermeister" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This biography of Seeger, The Protest Singer, by Alec Wilkinson, 2009, Knopf, is a delicious and speedy read. Welcome illustrations too.

Wilkinson cites "Seeger's biographer, David King Dunaway" in two or three places. I enjoyed Wilkinson's story so much that I am now reading the Dunaway biography, How Can I Keep from Singing: The Ballad of Pete Seeger, and I can compare them.

At 428 pp, Dunaway's is the definitive biography, its first edition having been published in the 1980s. With rich collaboration between the author and his subject, the second edition, which appeared in 2008, is a masterpiece in the genre. I recommend both books -- Seeger's story is a terrific one at any length.