Pete Seeger: The dissident who was never dissonant

“Wherever he went, he got people singing.” So begins the beautifully illustrated children’s book, Listen: How Pete Seeger Got American Singing (Roaring Brook Press, 2017), by Vermont author Leda Schubert. The book chronicles the life and times of America’s most famous musical dissident. Schubert discusses her meeting with Seeger and her personal shared history: Seeger was hauled before Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee and charged with contempt of Congress, and Schubert’s father also lost his government job during the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Schubert also discusses how a progressive summer camp first brought her to Vermont, and why she writes for children.

Leda Schubert, Author, Listen: How Pete Seeger Got American Singing