Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago. Terkel was born to Samuel Terkel, a Russian Jewish tailor and his wife, Anna Finkelin in New York City, New York. At the age of eight he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent most of his life. He had two brothers, Ben and Meyer . From 1926 to 1936, his parents ran a rooming house that also... served as a meeting place for people from all walks of life. Terkel credited his understanding of humanity and social interaction to the tenants and visitors who gathered in the lobby there, and the people who congregated in nearby Bughouse Square. By 1939, he had grown to adulthood, marrying Ida Goldberg that year, and the couple produced one son, Dan.
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