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Author photo. Photo by Robert Birnbaum (courtesy of the photographer)

Photo by Robert Birnbaum (courtesy of the photographer)

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Studs Terkel was an actor, writer, and radio host. He was born Louis Terkel on May 16, 1912 in New York City. He took his name from the James T. Farrell novel, Studs Lonigan. Terkel attended the University of Chicago and graduated with a law degree in 1934. Terkel acted in local stage productions and on radio dramas until he began one of the first television programs, an unscripted show called Studs Place in the early 1950s. In 1952, Terkel began Studs Terkel's Almanac on radio station WFMT in Chicago. Terkel compiled a series of books based on oral histories that defined America in the 20th Century. Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do received a National Book Award nomination in 1975. The Good War: An Oral History of World War II won the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction in 1985. Working was turned into a hit musical in 1978. Terkel was named the Communicator of the Year by the University of Chicago in 1969. He also won a Peabody Award for excellence in journalism in 1980 and the National Book Foundation Medal for contributions to American letters in 1997. He died on October 31, 2008 at the age of 96. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do… (more)
American Dreams: Lost and Found 480 copies, 4 reviews
Division Street: America 305 copies, 3 reviews
My American Century 276 copies, 1 review
Touch and Go: A Memoir 143 copies, 5 reviews
The Grapes of Wrath (Introduction, some editions) 33,174 copies, 460 reviews
Black Like Me (Foreword) 4,166 copies, 78 reviews
The Penguin Book of War (Contributor) 438 copies, 1 review
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose (Foreword, some editions) 288 copies, 13 reviews
Chicago: City on the Make (Introduction, some editions) 267 copies, 2 reviews
The Neon Wilderness (Afterword, some editions) 252 copies, 1 review
Granta 84: Over There: How America Sees the World (Contributor) 227 copies, 1 review
Granta 90: Country Life (Contributor) 159 copies
Baseball [1994 TV series] (Narrator) 80 copies
Eight Men Out [1988 Film] (Actor) 62 copies
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Short biography
Studs Terkel was born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants. He moved with his parents to Chicago where his parents ran a boarding house. Though graduating from law school, Terkel chose not to practice law. He joined a theater group and did other work until he began writing. In the 1950's, he was blacklisted from television for refusing to sign a loyalty oath to CBS. He was married to social worker Ida Goldberg for 60 years before her death in 1999. Studs Terkel is survived by one son, Dan Terkel.
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