Studs Terkel, recorder of America’s voices

Wie die Zeitungen (NYTimes, Guardian, ChicagoTribune) und andere Blogger (Herr Rau, Language Log) bereits schrieben, ist Studs Terkel am 31. Oktober gestorben. Der Economist hat in der aktuellen Ausgabe ebenfalls einen schönen Nachruf:
Studs Terkel, recorder of America’s voices.

Ein kurzer Ausschnitt:

Mr Terkel was a man on a mission. First, he meant to fix memories before they faded, especially memories of the fight for the eight-hour day, for union representation and civil rights. Second, he meant to establish the dignity of Everyman. He was alert to all the degrees of humiliation, from his own in 1934, passed on by a professor to the FBI (“Slovenly, a low-class Jew. He is not one of our type of boys”), to the loss of face suffered by a man who lost a nickel in a pinochle game. But he redressed the balance by treating everyone he interviewed as precious and unique, and their words as poetry.

Schön auch die Mitteilung, dass Studs Terkel auch Barack Obama kannte und schätzte.