Our salute to Studs

Photo: Martha Williams

I first met Studs Terkel when he agreed to an interview in 2007. I think I started prepping for it in 2001.

I visited him in Uptown, with a notebook full of questions. I think I asked one. That was it. The rest of the hour was spent sitting and listening as Studs talked about his admiration for his parents, discussed politics of the last century and this one, and using that incredible brain of his to connect—I’m not joking here—his birth to Al Gore. As the hour came to a close, I glanced at my notebook and all of the questions as yet not crossed off, as he said, “Did you get everything you need?” I said that I did. Really, it was about listening to the man who’d spent some 70 years listening to others. Sure, asking one question in one hour wasn’t exactly my brightest moment as a journalist, but it was a personal high.

And I know, from talking with and reading the interview transcripts with the Chicago luminaries in this issue, I’m not the only one to have had this experience. The bottom line is we could never do an issue like this without Studs. So included here is a profile of the man himself, a look at his creative legacy, a complete bibliography, a survey of his own notable quotes, and a gallery of Terkel videos. Consider it our tribute to Studs, the heroes’ hero.

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