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Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times
In Talking to Myself , Pulitzer Prizing–winning author Studs Terkel offers us an autobiography for our times―the stirring story of a man whose life has been so vivid that its telling mirrors the events of our century. From Mahalia Jackson to Bertrand Russell, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Frederico Fellini, Studs has met them all and captured their voices for us. With the addition of a marvelous new postscript, Talking to Myself is as enjoyable now as when it was first published―a work that is as unusual as it is compelling.
346 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
7 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
Studs Terkel
76 books415 followersLouis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for "The Good War", and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.
Terkel was acclaimed for his efforts to preserve American oral history. His 1985 book "The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two", which detailed ordinary peoples' accounts of the country's involvement in World War II, won the Pulitzer Prize. For "Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression", Terkel assembled recollections of the Great Depression that spanned the socioeconomic spectrum, from Okies, through prison inmates, to the wealthy. His 1974 book, "Working" also was highly acclaimed. In 1995, he received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Journalism and Communications. In 1997, Terkel was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two years later, he received the George Polk Career Award in 1999.
Terkel was acclaimed for his efforts to preserve American oral history. His 1985 book "The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two", which detailed ordinary peoples' accounts of the country's involvement in World War II, won the Pulitzer Prize. For "Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression", Terkel assembled recollections of the Great Depression that spanned the socioeconomic spectrum, from Okies, through prison inmates, to the wealthy. His 1974 book, "Working" also was highly acclaimed. In 1995, he received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Journalism and Communications. In 1997, Terkel was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two years later, he received the George Polk Career Award in 1999.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 1, 2008
Studs Terkel's passing leaves a large gap in our ability to understand each other. He was able to get past all the usual barriers to communication, with his old tape recorder on he would get to the heart of what all kinds of people were feeling and thinking. This book is a treasure to read.
This is a stream of consciousness account of an amazing life with interactions with the people he met and talked with along the way. One of my favorite accounts was when Studs began a conversation with a waiter who has just been scared to death by a customer's dog.
"In despair, the waiter catches my eye. I shrug my shoulders, my hands raised imploringly toward the heavens. He does likewise. He tells me the story of his life. I know it, thought I don't understand a word. I interrupt the first sequence after four minutes of it. 'Scusi, per favore,'I say. I explain to my wife. 'You see, he has four kids. He works like a dog. Why must he daily suffer all these humiliations.'
My wife sighs. She has been through this before. Often, she has threatened to tell my sudden companions of my fraudulence. But it isn't fraudulent, I insist. That's what he told me, I KNOW. The waiter, feeling better, now that he has someone to tell his troubles to, continues......."
People felt listened to by Studs Terkel and he honored that trust by telling their stories to all of us so that we might listen and learn too.
This is a stream of consciousness account of an amazing life with interactions with the people he met and talked with along the way. One of my favorite accounts was when Studs began a conversation with a waiter who has just been scared to death by a customer's dog.
"In despair, the waiter catches my eye. I shrug my shoulders, my hands raised imploringly toward the heavens. He does likewise. He tells me the story of his life. I know it, thought I don't understand a word. I interrupt the first sequence after four minutes of it. 'Scusi, per favore,'I say. I explain to my wife. 'You see, he has four kids. He works like a dog. Why must he daily suffer all these humiliations.'
My wife sighs. She has been through this before. Often, she has threatened to tell my sudden companions of my fraudulence. But it isn't fraudulent, I insist. That's what he told me, I KNOW. The waiter, feeling better, now that he has someone to tell his troubles to, continues......."
People felt listened to by Studs Terkel and he honored that trust by telling their stories to all of us so that we might listen and learn too.
April 22, 2010
An outward-focused memoir. Instead of retelling key events in his own development, Terkel puts forth hundreds of vignettes about other people--moments and conversations that got him thinking. And because this is Studs Terkel those people range from random bartenders to Martin Luther King Jr. The book was dictated to mixed results. You can hear Terkel's old school Chicago cadence in the written word, but his stream of consciousness is sometimes hard to follow. Still, it's well worth reading for Terkel's memories of Dreamland and other 20's jazz clubs, the gangsters who roamed his boyhood neighborhood in Chicago, the civil rights movement, Mahalia Jackson, Fellini, and Big Bill Broonzy.
August 20, 2007
There's a reason Studs Terkel makes oral history (or tape recording) look so easy. He understands the elements of a good story. And he's incredibly brilliant. Not only brilliant, his heart is in the right place -- Studs is one of those old school, meat eating, hard-drinking liberals that finds no real distinction between criminals and politicians, except that he admires criminals. In Talking to Myself he puts down the tape recorder and writes witty and wonderful about his childhood, Chicago and his adventures as a journalist. It's the best book I've read in a couple years. Like sitting in an old, wood-paneled bar with the funniest and most courteous man in the room. Studs is a class act.
July 10, 2014
This is the best. You can tell Studs was an actor—he narrates the way a playwright sets a scene. In this book he is quite directly political often in an unexpected, understated or charming way.
Here he is, in the thick of the ’68 Democratic Convention clash of protestors and police:
“I am furious. My fifteen-cent panatela is crushed in my pocket. During the rout, no doubt. I had envisioned more than a good smoke. It was my psychological weapon. Years before, I had seen the Russian film Chapayev. During its climactic battle scene, White Russian troops march toward the Bolsheviki, rifle at the ready. Each man is puffing a panatela. Psychology. My Lincoln Park plan: when the legion comes toward us, I shall casually light my panatela. But no. Tear gas. Put to flight. Humiliation. A crushed cigar” (203).
Here he is, facing off McCarthyism:
“At length, after he had suggested that I sign an oath, I suggested, gently and politely to be sure, that he fuck off. No voices were raised. I abhor scenes (44).”
Here he is at the 1965 freedom march from Montgomery to Selma:
“A young man, wearing a NEVER button, strolls by. I ask the question. “Never is a long time,” says the slim barber. His stubby friend nods. ‘My father is sixty-seven years old. With him, it is never. If he lived here, he’d take his squirrel gun and get him some. He’d shoot Martin Luther King for a snake. Me, I’ll tolerate martin Luther King. My kid will accept him. With his kid, it will be the custom. My grandson, if I have one, will probably admire Martin Luther King. There’s no such thing as never. Sheriff Clark is crazy.’” (272-273).
His reporting from the hotel where the freedom marchers are staying approaches Hunter S. Thompson territory—inebriation, encounters with military personnel prepared to make confessions, run-ins with menacing authorities and even more menacing locals….
The book builds terrific momentum, reaching its highest point in the last chapter, “Northern Lights,” a brief recounting of his trip to a mine in Kiruna, the site of a historic strike in ’69. He is disappointed with his interview with the strike leader, but finds the emotion he is looking for in his driver, the daughter of one of the miners. By chance, while at a hotel bar before his trip home, Studs encounters a man with whom he chats of art and gets drunk on cognac, discovering that he loves Mahalia Jackson: “I’m wide awake now. ‘How do you know about Mahalia Jacson?’ I ask. ‘I heard her on Swedish radio. A man, he talk about religion. When she sings gospels, that’s better than when the priest is speaking. Now she’s die.’ ‘You like her, huh?’ ‘Oh, I liker her very much. I like it when the bells are ringing, not when the priest is speaking.’” (316).
And so, it happens, in the Arctic Circle, Studs is able to show us how struggle and art bring us all together. I cried.
Here he is, in the thick of the ’68 Democratic Convention clash of protestors and police:
“I am furious. My fifteen-cent panatela is crushed in my pocket. During the rout, no doubt. I had envisioned more than a good smoke. It was my psychological weapon. Years before, I had seen the Russian film Chapayev. During its climactic battle scene, White Russian troops march toward the Bolsheviki, rifle at the ready. Each man is puffing a panatela. Psychology. My Lincoln Park plan: when the legion comes toward us, I shall casually light my panatela. But no. Tear gas. Put to flight. Humiliation. A crushed cigar” (203).
Here he is, facing off McCarthyism:
“At length, after he had suggested that I sign an oath, I suggested, gently and politely to be sure, that he fuck off. No voices were raised. I abhor scenes (44).”
Here he is at the 1965 freedom march from Montgomery to Selma:
“A young man, wearing a NEVER button, strolls by. I ask the question. “Never is a long time,” says the slim barber. His stubby friend nods. ‘My father is sixty-seven years old. With him, it is never. If he lived here, he’d take his squirrel gun and get him some. He’d shoot Martin Luther King for a snake. Me, I’ll tolerate martin Luther King. My kid will accept him. With his kid, it will be the custom. My grandson, if I have one, will probably admire Martin Luther King. There’s no such thing as never. Sheriff Clark is crazy.’” (272-273).
His reporting from the hotel where the freedom marchers are staying approaches Hunter S. Thompson territory—inebriation, encounters with military personnel prepared to make confessions, run-ins with menacing authorities and even more menacing locals….
The book builds terrific momentum, reaching its highest point in the last chapter, “Northern Lights,” a brief recounting of his trip to a mine in Kiruna, the site of a historic strike in ’69. He is disappointed with his interview with the strike leader, but finds the emotion he is looking for in his driver, the daughter of one of the miners. By chance, while at a hotel bar before his trip home, Studs encounters a man with whom he chats of art and gets drunk on cognac, discovering that he loves Mahalia Jackson: “I’m wide awake now. ‘How do you know about Mahalia Jacson?’ I ask. ‘I heard her on Swedish radio. A man, he talk about religion. When she sings gospels, that’s better than when the priest is speaking. Now she’s die.’ ‘You like her, huh?’ ‘Oh, I liker her very much. I like it when the bells are ringing, not when the priest is speaking.’” (316).
And so, it happens, in the Arctic Circle, Studs is able to show us how struggle and art bring us all together. I cried.
July 17, 2014
A great book. I can hear Studs talk when I read it. It is literally written as one might think, moving from one thought to another, so the reader really needs to pay close attention.
May 25, 2020
Well, he did warn me that this was a free flow state of conscience book. I thought I could work my way through this, but I could not relate to the vignettes that he was presenting. Since I am of an advanced age, I was surprised that I could not connect with the people he was mentioning. Oh well, life is way too short to slough through this.
January 16, 2020
What a full life led..quite a read...intelligent, insightful, humorous...from the 1920s forward...Al Capone, to Big Bill Broonzy, to Martin Luther King...wonderful !!!!
January 23, 2012
Mark Twain said that when doing a memoir, don't do it in straight chronological fashion, but take side excursions as things come to you. While that may be a good general principle, Terkel takes it to such an extreme that much of the time I don't know what the hell he is talking about. This book was written in 1971 and it covers the 50 years before that. Terkel assumes the reader knows the people he is talking about and can make the connections that he doesn't spell out. It doesn't work for me.
February 23, 2008
This was my first attempt at listening to a whole book- bought it from Audiobooks with a birthday gift certificate. I might have liked this one better in print, because I could have skipped things that were repetitive or annoying. Also, I was put off by the way the reader rendered ethnic accents, and by the way he sounded similar to, but not like, Studs Terkel himself. But it was fascinating to hear Studs Terkel's own story-- it was not at all what I had imagined.
June 12, 2012
An American original, Studs Terkel focused on learning more from people about their lives, whether it was a president or a street walker. Here he revisits his own collection of memories, especially those of his growing up at Chicago's old Wells Grand Hotel in Roaring 20's.
Studs' unique combination of humor and insight remain a great treasure that is worth combing through with a fair amount of time and attention.
Studs' unique combination of humor and insight remain a great treasure that is worth combing through with a fair amount of time and attention.
August 30, 2012
Interesting, but I find it far less interesting and convincing than Terkel's collected interviews.
This contains a lot of personal reminiscences re. growing up in Chicago, which I found tedious and somewhat affected.
I'd really give about 3.5 stars. Unless you're already a fan, go with an interview collection (e.g. Working, American Dreams) first.
This contains a lot of personal reminiscences re. growing up in Chicago, which I found tedious and somewhat affected.
I'd really give about 3.5 stars. Unless you're already a fan, go with an interview collection (e.g. Working, American Dreams) first.
April 8, 2011
Gave up. At first I really enjoyed the random recollections of life in the 1920s and '30s in Chicago. But after a while, I was supremely bored. So many names that didn't mean a thing to me. Not enough action in the stories. Maybe it gets better, but I didn't make it past about page 50.
October 15, 2007
don't know yet!
September 4, 2008
very enjoyable...
February 23, 2012
I liked his books of interviews better. This book moves back and forth chronologically so much that it takes half the book before you "get it".
June 14, 2016
A peculiar, sporadically brilliant oral memoir from one of our nation's finest historians. I especially enjoyed the bits about Chicago.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews