Terkel is perhaps best known for his oral histories, such as the 1970 book Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, for which he assembled recollections of the Great Depression spanning the socioeconomic spectrum, from Okies, to prison inmates, to the wealthy. His 1974 book Working, in which (in the words of the subtitle) "People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do" was also highly acclaimed. (Working was made into a short-lived Broadway show in 1978 and telecast on PBS in 1982.) Terkel won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for "The Good War", which challenged the prevailing notion that, in contrast to the Vietnam War era, World War II was a time of unblemished national solidarity, goodwill, and unified purpose. In 1997 Terkel was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1999 he received the George Polk Career Award. - Wikipedia ******** I still take out Working and read it now and then.
Terkel had grown frail since the publication last year of his memoir, "Touch and Go," said Gordon Mayer, vice president of the Community Media Workshop, which Terkel had supported.
"I'm still in touch, but I'm ready to go," he said last year at his last public appearance with the workshop, a nonprofit that recognizes Chicago reporters who take risks in covering the city.
"My dad led a long, full, eventful -- sometimes tempestuous -- satisfying life," his son Dan said in a statement.
"The last time I saw him, he was up, about, and mad as hell about the Cubs," workshop President Thom Clark said in the statement. - CNN
