A Book of Life

By Andrea Sachs

Studs Terkel was born in 1912, the year the Titanic went down. In his long career, he has been an actor, a disc jockey, a sports commentator and a television and radio host. He also pioneered the field of popular oral history in 11 books, including Working and The Good War, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Recently he discussed with TIME the new kind of challenge he tackles in his latest book of interviews, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith, to be published this month by New Press.

IT'S VERY INTIMIDATING TO INTERVIEW THE BEST INTERVIEWER IN THE BUSINESS.

Keep going. I like your style.

WHY WERE YOU INTERESTED IN DEATH AS A TOPIC?

All of the books I've been involved with have dealt with actual experiences--what's it like to be a schoolteacher or a storekeeper or a spot welder. Death is the one experience none of us have had but all of us will have. So I never thought I would write about that. It came about because as I grew older, and read the obituaries more and more, and names of more and more of my friends appeared--I said, "Hey, this is something." During my work on the book, my wife died. And that added, let us say, a certain note to it.

SIXTY YEARS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY AMOUNT OF TIME TO SPEND WITH SOMEBODY. IT MUST HAVE BEEN VERY HARD TO LOSE HER.

It was especially hard. How can I...Oh, boy. I first saw her as a young social worker. I had a job--it wasn't WPA, but it was governmental, part-time stuff at an agency. I spot this girl in a blue smock. I notice that people are always coming to her. I don't mean just clients; I mean colleagues as well. We got married, and she was involved in everything. People--men and women--all seemed to gravitate to her. When she entered a room, it was like she danced the room.

WAS IT THERAPY TO DO THE BOOK?

I think it was a palliative beyond prescription.

ARE YOU AT ALL WORRIED THAT PEOPLE WON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT DEATH?

People are anxious to. The book is about life, really. It's about the preciousness of life. It's the most alive book I've ever done.

WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE ATTITUDES PEOPLE HAD ABOUT DEATH?

I was both surprised and delighted. There's a phrase a surprising number of people use: "I am not religious; I'm spiritual." So you think it's New Age stuff. But it isn't. What that person is saying is, "I don't want to be connected with any institution, such as a church or a synagogue or a mosque. But I do believe; I do have faith." This book has more religion in it than all my other books put together. For those who actually believe that there is a hereafter, there's a solace, there's consolation if a dear one is lost that assuages whatever grief or guilt there is, or even your own death. Whereas for someone who says, "There's no there there," as Gertrude Stein said about Oakland, nada, that's all there is, well, it's a little tougher.

TELL ME WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE 89.

Churchill is reputed to have said, "Who would want to live to be 90? Everyone who is 89." We're a greedy lot. I'm not saying this out of braggadocio. I don't fear death. I really don't. My wife of 60 years, Ida, is gone. That's a gap, to put it mildly. How does it feel to be 89? Like 89! [Laughs.] My hearing--off and on, mostly off. I still do the treadmill, every third day, 15 minutes, and then the Exercycle and the dumbbells. But so far as the actual going, I really don't have that fear. I have my two martinis.

EVERY DAY?

You bet. And two cigars. I want to make clear that I'm not a lout or an oaf. I don't puff cigars at people. I don't smoke in the presence of others. I only smoke them at home.

HOW DID YOUR QUINTUPLE BYPASS FIVE YEARS AGO AFFECT THINGS?

One day I was watching a basketball game at home. I had this stinging pain in my arm and a cold sweat. I saw my doctor the next day. He said, "Angiogram immediately." He and the surgeon and the cardiologist all look at it and say, "It's a mess. You've got six months to live if you don't do anything, meaning surgery. Let's go." I said, "What are the odds?" He said, "Very good--about 8 or 9 to 1." I said, "O.K., I like the odds."

YOU'RE AN INSPIRATION TO THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO WORK UNTIL THEY'RE 110 YEARS OLD.

Oh, yeah! As far as work is concerned--well, of course. I equate that with life. Freud speaks of the two prime impulses of man: lieb and arbeit. Love and work. Work is part of what you do. It may take any form; it may be gardening, it may be anything. But without that...

SO YOU WILL NEVER RETIRE?

No, no. Toes up, of course.