Studs Terkel on Telling Stories
Nan Barnes
Today’s Memoir/Family History Quote
“People are hungry for stories. It’s part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another.”
Studs Terkel
Today’s Literary Birthday
Horatio Alger, the prolific author of 133 “rags to riches” novels for young people, was born this day in 1832. With titles like Ragged Dick, Mark the Match Boy, The Store Boy and The Young Bank Messenger, Alger’s books always featured a plucky, poor but honest boy rising through hard work and determination to reach comfortable middle class stability. The novels were immensely popular and became a part of the folklore of the American Dream. As they settled in the popular mind Alger’s heroes achieved great wealth and became an object less on pointed to by those in the Gilded Age who sought to justify laissez-faire and the rise of the robber barons.
Today’s Memoir/Family History Memory Trigger
Each day we offer a question or action to help you trigger your memories of things which will make your memoir or family history richer, more detailed and more interesting. Reflect on the prompt and see what ideas it triggers. Here’s today’s:
Do you easily cope with unexpected situations? Do you enjoy a varied life or do you like to keep things more on an even keel or the same?
“People are hungry for stories. It’s part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another.”
Studs Terkel
Today’s Literary Birthday
Horatio Alger, the prolific author of 133 “rags to riches” novels for young people, was born this day in 1832. With titles like Ragged Dick, Mark the Match Boy, The Store Boy and The Young Bank Messenger, Alger’s books always featured a plucky, poor but honest boy rising through hard work and determination to reach comfortable middle class stability. The novels were immensely popular and became a part of the folklore of the American Dream. As they settled in the popular mind Alger’s heroes achieved great wealth and became an object less on pointed to by those in the Gilded Age who sought to justify laissez-faire and the rise of the robber barons.
Today’s Memoir/Family History Memory Trigger
Each day we offer a question or action to help you trigger your memories of things which will make your memoir or family history richer, more detailed and more interesting. Reflect on the prompt and see what ideas it triggers. Here’s today’s:
Do you easily cope with unexpected situations? Do you enjoy a varied life or do you like to keep things more on an even keel or the same?