Studs Terkel posted 11/1/2008 12:34:49 PM | 1 kudo what's this?     report abuse

eastham

Yesterday, journalist and social historian Studs Terkel died at the age of 96.

Terkel, who always said he wanted his epitaph to read "Curiousity never killed this cat," penned such classics as Working and Giants of Jazz.

Terkel was born in New York and raised in Chicago. He got his start as a writer with the WPA's Federal Writers Project. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a recipient of the George Polk Award for a lifetime of achievement as well as the Elijah Paris Lovejoy Award.

Terkel's career began in radio, but he switched to writing books after being blacklisted from working in radio and television during the McCarthy era. Terkel said that the blacklisting was a blessing in disguise as it allowed him to focus on writing books. And why was Terkel blacklisted? Well, while he was always sympathetic to the plight of working people and an unabashed proponent of the New Deal, Terkel's blacklisting was linked to his signing a petition in opposition to the poll tax. When advised to say he had signed the petition under duress, Terkel responded:

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