People Talk About What They Do All Day

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do
Studs Terkel
Pantheon Books, New York
1972

I am a big fan of Studs Terkel. This title is an incredible collection of interviews he made with people about their work throughout the US during the 60s. Not being a sociologist but host of a radio show, his massive undertaking lead to quirky, candid and often insightful encounters with interviewees by. I feel for the transcriber.

One of my favourites so far is Terry Pickins, the newspaper delivery boy, a small Victor Mildrew in the making, moaning about the nature of his work – ‘If anybody told me being a newsboy builds character, I’d know he was a liar. I don’t see where people get all this bull about kid who’s gonna be President and being a newsboy made a President out of him. It taught him how to handle his money and this bull. You know what it did? It taught him how to hate the people on his route. And the printers. And dogs.’

Over the next week I will post more extracts from interviews.

The copy I have photographed is the 1975 edition published by Wildwood Press, London borrowed from the stack of Lewisham Library. I do have the American first edition but without dust jacket. The image below is the endpaper of the first edition, not visible in the later library copy.

People's Communes

People's Communes in Pictures
Eds. Ministry of Agriculture, People's Republic of China
Foreign Language Press
Peking 1960

Another title on my current theme of work and occupations.
The blurb on the inside jacket cover reads:
'The people's commune is a new social organization which has emerged from the advanced agricultural producers' cooperatives in China... The photographs in this book graphically illustrate the rise of the people's communes and their immense vitality and superiority. They show the brilliant successes scored by the communes in water conservancy, industry and the all-round development of agriculture as well as cultural and education work and collective welfare. The communes have achieved these successes because of their large size and public ownership.'

Cuz's Anthem

The English Book Trade
Marjorie Plant
George Allen & Unwin, London
3rd Edition 1974


Continuing my current obsession with trades and occupations, I found this book in the stack of Lewisham Library. I was particularly taken with this account of a bizarre 17th Century initiation rite into the book trade.

‘When a Boy is to be bound Apprentice, before he is admitted a Chappellonian, it is necessary for him to be made a Cuz, or Deacon; in the Performance of which there are a great many Ceremonies. The Chappellonians walk three Times round the Room, their right Arms being put thro’ the Lappets of their Coats; the Boy who is to be a made a Cuzcarrying a wooden Sword before them. Then the Boy kneels, and the Father of the Chapel, after exhorting him to be observant of his Business, and not to betray the Secrets of the Workman, squeezes a Spunge of strong Beer over his Head, and gives him a Title, which is generally that of Duke of some Place of the least Reputation near which he lives, or did live before… Whilst the Boy is upon his Knees, all the Chappellonians, which their right Arms put through the Lappets of their Coats as before, walk round him, singing the Cuz’s Anthem, which is done by adding all the Vowels to the Consonants in the following manner.

Ba ba; Be be; Bi bi; Ba-be-bi;
Bo bo; Ba-be-bi-bo; Bu bu; Ba-be-bi-bo-bu–

and so through the rest of the Consonants.’



Caption: Benjamin Franklin in a London Printing Office
After Eyre Crow, R.A.