Introduction
As a celebrated oral historian Terkel was attuned to how people and societies pass along knowledge from generation to generation and how these stories evolve from the particular to the mythic over time.
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As a celebrated oral historian Terkel was attuned to how people and societies pass along knowledge from generation to generation and how these stories evolve from the particular to the mythic over time. Some programs in the archive deal with this transformation directly, as with the great explainer of myths Joseph Campbell, remarkable myth-inspired storytellers such as Madeleine L’Engle and Maurice Sendak or many of the folk, blues and gospel musicians who drew on tall-tales and ancient legends in their gathering of musical material. Also, the Prix-Italia winning program “Born to Live” from 1960 is a unique specimen of radio storytelling created by Terkel and colleague Jim Unrath that rises to the level of contemporary myth.
