Utah Westerners

November Announcement for the Utah Westerners

December 8, 2015 at 11:10 am kenttschanz Leave a comment

“The Man Who Never Died: The Life and Legacy of Joe Hill after A century”
William M. Adler

William Adler provides the first reappraisal of the case of IWW songwriter Joe Hill in nearly a half century. Born in Sweden, and among the vast wave of immigrants that came to the United States in the late 19th century, Hill joined the IWW which advocated “One big Union.” As a “Wobbly,” he used his talents as a songwriter and cartoonist to further the organizations goals. Executed for the murder of a Salt Lake Grocer, which he denied, his case is still hotly debated. On the eve of his execution he urged his colleagues not to mourn but organize. Colorful, controversial and complicated, an examination of Hill’s life, the factors that brought him to the United States, and his contested execution tells us a great deal about the nature of organized labor in Utah and the West. And Adler’s solid research informs this important re-examination of the man and the case itself.

William M. Adler has written for many national and regional magazines, including Esquire, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and the Texas Observer. In addition to The Man Who Never Died, he has authored two other books of narrative nonfiction: Land of Opportunity (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995), an intimate look at the rise and fall of a crack cocaine empire, and Mollie’s Job (Scribner, 2000), which follows the flight of a single factory job from the U.S. to Mexico over the course of fifty years. His work explores the intersection of individual lives and the larger forces of their times, and it describes the gap between American ideals and American realities. Adler lives with his wife and son in Denver, Colorado.

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