Holding On: Dreamers, Visionaries, Eccentrics, and Other American Heroes - Softcover

Isay, David; Wang, Harvey

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9780393316087: Holding On: Dreamers, Visionaries, Eccentrics, and Other American Heroes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393316084 ISBN 13: 9780393316087

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997

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"A collection of unexpected characters, intriguing characters, lovingly assembled. It's a fine read."--Mike Wallace

This book is a tribute to some of America's greatest characters, people holding on to unique ways of life at all costs. A castle builder, a forty-year veteran Woolworth's lunch-counter waitress, a moonshiner, and the president of The Brooklyn Elite Checker Club are among this varied group of ordinary people who prevail against all odds. They are Dewey Chafin and Barbara Elkins, snake handlers for the Church of the Lord Jesus in Jolo, West Virginia; Amos Powers, caretaker of America's only coon-dog graveyard in Colbert County, Alabama; Dixie Evans, curator of Exotic World, Museum of Burlesque in Helendale, California; and Mike Gashwarza of the Hopi tribe, fighting against electricity being brought to Old Oraibi, Arizona, the oldest town in North America.

David Isay's compelling, often humorous profiles are accompanied by Harvey Wang's wonderful portraits of fifty such people, die-hard individualists who speak for themselves, illuminating their remarkable lives and personalities. Henry Roth's foreword is a moving testament to the creativity, tenacity, and dignity these people possess. Photographs

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About the Author:

David Isay is an award-winning radio producer and regular contributor to National Public Radio. He lives in New York City.

Harvey Wang is a professional photographer living and working in New York City. His work appears in many magazines and periodicals and in Rock Wives and Where Have You Gone Vince Dimaggio?

Henry Roth (1906–1995) spent his early years on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In 1914, the Roth family moved to Jewish Harlem. Roth died in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

From AudioFile:

Ten short human interest features from documentarian David Isay's brilliant series for NPR are packaged with artistry as a kind of extended episodic essay in sound. A theme of obsession versus entropy emerges in these profiles of American eccentrics holding on to chimerical anchors of one kind or another: the preacher who keeps a diary of every second of his life, the Orthodox Jewish congregation sticking it out in small-town Mississippi, the lady who lives on food stamps to support her bell museum, etc. Sounds depressing? It isn't. Moving, yes. Funny, too. And fascinating. As much as possible, Isay lets his subjects (and the sounds of their milieus) speak for themselves, but when he must intrude, he shows himself to be a writer/observer of exceptional skill and sensitivity. On paper, this would be Pulitzer Prize material. Indeed, Isay has won the broadcast version of the Pulitzer, the Peabody Award, and may net a Pulitzer for the book that is being pub-lished to accompany this cassette. Y.R. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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