Touch and Go: A Memoir

By: Studs Terkel

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Synopsis: This memoir by the oral historian and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Good War is &“a masterpiece about a life which itself is a sort of masterpiece&” (Oliver Sacks). Chosen as a Best Book of the Year in 2007 by the Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly, and Playboy, Studs Terkel&’s memoir Touch and Go is &“history from a highly personal point of view, by one who has helped make it&” (Kirkus Reviews). Terkel takes us through his childhood and into his early experiences—as a law student during the Depression, and later as an actor on both radio and the stage—offering a brilliant and often hilarious portrait of Chicago in the 1920s and &’30s. Describing his beginnings as a disc jockey after World War II, his involvement with progressive politics during the McCarthy era, as well as his career as an interviewer and oral historian, Touch and Go is a testament to Terkel&’s &“generosity of spirit, sense of social justice and commitment to capture on his ever present tape recorder the voices of those who otherwise would not be heard&” (The New York Times Book Review). It is a brilliant lifetime achievement from the man the Washington Post has called &“the most distinguished oral historian of our time.&” &“The master storyteller tells his own story, as no one else can, irresistibly.&” —Garry Wills