University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

Everyone has important and interesting stories to tell. This book chronicles the history of the Storycorp Project and celebrates the lives and stories of everyday people. Americans made appointments at one of the recording booths in New York City or at one of the mobile recording studios that traveled the country. They recorded their stories and this book shares forty-nine selections. Listening to them and reading them truly is an act of love.

I chose this book because my father certainly had interesting and important stories to tell. He was, in fact, a gifted storyteller. Growing up, my father told us stories of life on the farm in rural West Virginia, his family’s first automobile (a Model A Ford that cost $549), and his uncles, Cicero Sylvester, Moses Sherman, and Socrates Bascum. My father passed away last summer at the age of eighty-six. I dedicate this book to him. He was, and will forever be, my biggest cheerleader.