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Summary
Summary
Well-researched revelations about the union martyr and prolific protest songwriter.If Labor Day were a gift-giving occasion, this biography of Joe Hill by freelance writer Adler (Mollie's Job: A Story of Life and Work on the Global Assembly Line, 2000, etc.) would top this year's holiday list. As the author notes, the man who was executed in 1915 for a murder he didn't commit now seems "to float with Paul Bunyan and John Henry and Johnny Appleseed in a celestial realm somewhere between fiction and legend." The Swedish immigrant was complicit in that mythmaking, insisting he defend himself against charges of killing a grocer (where there was no motive or evidence tying him to the scene), then offering little defense and finally demanding a new trial rather than settling for the pardon he might well have received (his thousands of advocates included President Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller). But somewhere during his incarceration, Hill decided that he was worth more to the labor movement dead than alive. He refused to explain the only evidence against him, a gunshot wound suffered on the night of the crime, most likely inflicted by a friend who had been engaged to a woman they both coveted; her letter explaining the details is one of the keys unearthed by the Adler's five years of research. Hill's story remains inextricably linked with that of the IWW--the International Workers of the World (or "Wobblies")--notorious as America's most radical union of the early 20th century. Not only did it embrace the foreign and unskilled, but rather than campaigning for better wages, it urged the abolishment of the wage system. Yet what ultimately distinguished the Wobblies was their celebration of "the power of song" in galvanizing a movement. While the Wobblies are a dim memory, and Hill has become better known through a song eulogizing him than any he wrote, he remains a seminal influence on musical activism from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger through Bob Dylan.Stronger in research than storytelling, Adler reveals the man beneath the myth, detailing the life that spawned the legend.]]> Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Summary
In 1914, Joe Hill was convicted of murder in Utah and sentenced to death by firing squad, igniting international controversy. Many believed Hill was innocent, condemned for his association with the Industrial Workers of the World -- the radical Wobblies. Now, following four years of intensive investigation, William M. Adler gives us the first full-scale biography of Joe Hill, and presents never before published documentary evidence that comes as close as one can to definitively exonerating him.
Joe Hill's gripping tale is set against a brief but electrifying moment in American history, between the century's turn and World War I, when the call for industrial unionism struck a deep chord among disenfranchised workers; when class warfare raged and capitalism was on the run. Hill was the union's preeminent songwriter, and in death, he became organized labor's most venerated martyr, celebrated by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, and immortalized in the ballad "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night."
The Man Who Never Died does justice to Joe Hill's extraordinary life and its controversial end. Drawing on extensive new evidence, Adler deconstructs the case against his subject and argues convincingly for the guilt of another man. Reading like a murder mystery, and set against the background of the raw, turn-of-the-century West, this essential American story will make news and expose the roots of critical contemporary issues.
Author Notes
William M. Adler is a freelance writer who has contributed to numerous publications, including Esquire , Rolling Stone , Mother Jones , Texas Monthly , and the Texas Observer . He is the author of Land of Opportunity , about the rise and fall of a crack cocaine empire, and Mollie's Job , following the flight of one woman's factory job from the U.S. to Mexico. Adler lives with his wife and son in Denver, Colorado.
Reviews (3)
Booklist Review
The inspiration for the labor anthe. Joe Hil. interests Adler on several levels. Chronicling Hill's murder case, which culminated in his execution by the State of Utah in 1915, Adler plumbs Hill's mind-set, which apparently preferred martyrdom to exoneration. Presenting hitherto undisclosed evidence, Adler describes a woman's letter written 34 years after Hill's death that impugns the circumstantial proof proffered during Hill's trial. Also suggesting that Hill was a victim of misidentification, Adler holds that the actual killer of a Salt Lake City grocer was Magnus Olson, a career criminal. In addition to the legal details that he intensively recounts, Adler discusses the social currents that vaulted Hill into fame. A songwriter for his union, the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies), Hill participated in many of its battles with capitalism and arrived in Salt Lake City in the wake of one such skirmish. To Utah authorities fearful of the Wobblies, Adler argues, Hill in effect personified the union on trial. Presenting Hill as man and symbol, Adler contributes vitally to labor history.--Taylor, Gilber. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
Adler has produced the most comprehensive biography to date of Hill (1879-1915), the celebrated bard of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) who was executed for murder by the state of Utah in 1915. Since there are so few details of Hill's life before his arrest in 1914, the author explores in depth the history of the town in Sweden in which Hill was born, the development of the IWW, radical movements in the early 20th century, the Mexican Revolution, Utah's political and religious history, and much more. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, some freshly unearthed, Adler provides many new insights, particularly concerning Hill's guilt; he not only presents extensive evidence that Hill was innocent of the double homicide in Salt Lake City, but also supplies the name of the possible culprit. Including extensive notes and illustrations, this is a fine addition to the extensive literature on Hill, which includes Franklin Rosemont's Joe Hill: The IWW and the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture (2003). It will serve those interested in, for example, popular music, labor movements, and radical organizations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. R. D. Cohen emeritus, Indiana University Northwest
Library Journal Review
Many readers may know the moving folk song "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night." In 1915, labor activist Joe Hill was executed in Utah for a murder it remains doubtful he committed. Adler (Mollie's Job: A Story of Life and Work on the Global Assembly Line) reexamines the murky circumstances of the crime and trial. Hill, a proud member of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies), was known for his humorous yet aggressive protest songs. Set to popular tunes and featured in the IWW's Little Red Songbook, they were pointed attacks on the establishment. Hill's famous "The Preacher and the Slave" mocks the hypocrisy of offering spiritual advice before worldly sustenance and introduced into the American lexicon the phrase "pie in the sky." Adler references newspapers, archival sources, and related significant biographies to tell Hill's story. He speculates why Hill refused to testify at his trial and highlights the criminal record and weak alibi of another likely murder suspect, introducing a letter of somewhat shaky provenance that he believes exonerates Hill. VERDICT Highly recommended. Appropriate for students and lay readers, this biography is an easy read, provides necessary historical context, and may successfully revive Hill in American popular consciousness.-Laura Ruttum, Denver (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| I In The Sweet By And By | |
| 1 Fanning the Flames | p. 27 |
| 2 The Man Who Wouldn't Be Held Up | p. 41 |
| 3 A Prime Suspect | p. 56 |
| 4 A Deadly Certainty | p. 70 |
| II Finding A Voice | |
| 5 "The Thought for the Day and the Dream of the Night" | p. 91 |
| 6 "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum!" | p. 115 |
| 7 A Suburb of Hell | p. 140 |
| 8 Chicken Thieves and Outlaws | p. 159 |
| 9 "More Beast than Man" | p. 181 |
| III A Song On His Lips | |
| 10 Bracing for War | p. 215 |
| 11 The Majesty of the Law | p. 231 |
| 12 "New Trail or Bust" | p. 268 |
| 13 Law v. Anarchy | p. 302 |
| 14 To Be Found Dead in Utah | p. 323 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 351 |
| Sources and Notes | |
| Selected Bibliography | p. 417 |
| Index | p. 425 |
