Never without a Song: The Years and Songs of Jennie Devlin, 1865-1952 (Music in American Life) - Softcover

Katharine D. Newman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252063716 ISBN 13: 9780252063718

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1995

Synopsis

Never Without a Song focuses on the centrality of folksong in the life of Jennie Devlin, a woman who worked for fourteen years as a "bound-out girl," or serving maid, along the New York-Pennsylvania border in the late 1800s. Largely ignored and unwanted, Devlin persevered through Dickensian misfortunes to find love and raise a family (often alone) in Philadelphia and Gloucester, New Jersey. Katharine Newman met Devlin in 1936 and compiled information about the older woman's life and music. Half a century later, Newman returned to her collection in retirement, with her own perspective of age. The result is a unique biography of an American working-class woman, told with depth and candor. Newman also includes "I Wish I'd Been Born a Boy," "James Bird," "Martha Decker," "My Grandmother's Old Armchair," and other pieces, both British and American, most with tunes.

About this title

About the Author

Katharine C. Newman was an independent scholar with a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

From the Back Cover

This biography focuses on the centrality of folksong in the life of Jennie Devlin, a woman who worked for fourteen years as a 'bound-out girl' along the New York-Pennsylvanian border and later lived in Philadelphia and Gloucester, New Jersey.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252063716
• ISBN 13: 9780252063718
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328