Studs Terkel (Audio cassette)

The name "Studs" was a nick-name derived from the function character "Studs Lonigan" in James T. Farrell's 1920s trilogy. Studs Terkel is one of the great oral historians of this century. His literature speaks to and for the common man. He was born in 1903 and throughout his life he never drove a car but preferred to take a bus and share life with the regular people.

Studs started his career in the early '50s doing interviews for radio WFMT in Chicago. By the mid '60s his interviews were being noticed and his first oral history was published. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1985 book "The Good War." He has been inducted into the Academy of Arts and Letters and has received an award for "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters" by the National Book Foundation.

In best-selling books that began in 1970 with "Hard Times," and a legendary radio show that started on WFMT in Chicago, Studs Terkel told the tales that real people had told him. IDEAS host Paul Kennedy interviews Studs Terkel.