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Also by Sydney Lewis:

Touch And Go, November 2007
Hardcover

Also by Studs Terkel:

P.S., November 2008
Paperback
Touch And Go, November 2007
Hardcover
The Studs Terkel Reader: My American Century, May 2007
Paperback
Coming Of Age, May 2007
Paperback
And They All Sang, September 2005
Hardcover
Hope Dies Last, December 2004
Paperback
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, December 2002
Paperback
Hard Times, November 2000
Paperback
Working, March 1997
Paperback
The Good War, January 1997
Paperback

TOUCH AND GO
By: Sydney Lewis, Studs Terkel

A Memoir

New Press
November 2007
On Sale: November 1, 2007
288 pages
ISBN: 1595580433
EAN: 9781595580436
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir

The extraordinary life and times of an American icon—the Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian's long-awaited memoir—a major publishing event.

At nearly ninety-five, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. In Touch and Go, he offers a memoir which—embodying the spirit of the man himself—is youthful, vivacious, and enormous fun.

Terkel begins by taking us back to his early childhood with his father, mother, and two older brothers, describing the hectic life of a family trying to earn a living in Chicago. He then goes on to recall his own experiences—as a poll watcher charged with stealing votes for the Democratic machine, as a young theatergoer, and eventually as an actor himself in both radio and on the stage—giving us a brilliant and often hilarious portrait of the Chicago of the 1920s and '30s. He tells of his beginnings as a disc jockey after World War II and as an interviewer and oral historian—a craft he would come to perfect and indeed personify. Finally, he discusses his involvement with progressive politics, leading inevitably to his travails during the McCarthy period when he was blacklisted and thrown out of work despite having become by then one of the country's most popular TV hosts.

Fans of Studs Terkel will find much to discover in these remarkable reminiscences. Others will be captivated to learn of the unique and eclectic life of one of America's greatest living legends.

Media Buzz

All Things Considered - October 31, 2008