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She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs
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Scribner 2020
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Available from OverDrive
Description
In this Time Top 100 Book of the Year, the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Heartland "analyzes how Dolly Parton's songs—and success—have embodied feminism for working-class women" (People).
Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities—and strengths—of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving. In her family, she writes, "country music was foremost a language among women. It's how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren't discussed." And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton.

In this "tribute to the woman who continues to demonstrate that feminism comes in coats of many colors," Smarsh tells readers how Parton's songs have validated women who go unheard: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the struggling mother disparaged as "trailer trash." Parton's broader career—from singing on the front porch of her family's cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains to achieving stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from "girl singer" managed by powerful men to self-made mogul of business and philanthropy—offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture.

Infused with Smarsh's trademark insight, intelligence, and humanity, this is "an ambitious book" (The New Republic) about the icon Dolly Parton and an "in-depth examination into gender and class and what it means to be a woman and a working-class hero that feels particularly important right now" (Refinery29).
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
10/13/2020
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781982157302
ASIN:
B085CNHWVR
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Sarah Smarsh. (2020). She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs. Scribner.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Sarah Smarsh. 2020. She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs. Scribner.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Sarah Smarsh, She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs. Scribner, 2020.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Sarah Smarsh. She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs. Scribner, 2020.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
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      • bioText: Sarah Smarsh is a journalist who has reported for The New York Times, Harper's, the Guardian, and many other publications. Her first book, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her second book, She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Smarsh is a frequent political commentator and speaker on socioeconomic class. She lives in Kansas.
      • name: Sarah Smarsh
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She Come by It Natural
fullDescription
In this Time Top 100 Book of the Year, the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Heartland "analyzes how Dolly Parton's songs—and success—have embodied feminism for working-class women" (People).
Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities—and strengths—of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving. In her family, she writes, "country music was foremost a language among women. It's how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren't discussed." And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton.

In this "tribute to the woman who continues to demonstrate that feminism comes in coats of many colors," Smarsh tells readers how Parton's songs have validated women who go unheard: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the struggling mother disparaged as "trailer trash." Parton's broader career—from singing on the front porch of her family's cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains to achieving stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from "girl singer" managed by powerful men to self-made mogul of business and philanthropy—offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture.

Infused with Smarsh's trademark insight, intelligence, and humanity, this is "an ambitious book" (The New Republic) about the icon Dolly Parton and an "in-depth examination into gender and class and what it means to be a woman and a working-class hero that feels particularly important right now" (Refinery29).
reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from June 29, 2020
        In this affectionate and astute cultural study, Smarsh (Heartland) shines a light on Dolly Parton’s struggles and path to becoming the queen of country music. Smarsh narrates Parton’s life: born in 1946 the fourth of 12 siblings on a small farm in east Tennessee, Parton weathered poverty and her parents’ divorce through her deep love of music and her desire to be a star. She left on a bus for Nashville when she was 18 with three paper grocery bags of her belongings; over the course of three years, Parton made a small name for herself through gigs as a backup singer and on morning radio shows. She scored her first top 10 hit in 1967 with “Dumb Blonde,” a song whose theme of a woman being smarter than a man who underestimates her characterizes much of her later music. It’s a sharp narrative (originally published as a four-part serial in the music magazine, No Depression) as Smarsh illustrates that even when Parton conquered the man’s world in the mid-1980s, she was still treated as less capable than men in the industry. So she created her own world: she opened her Dollywood theme park in 1986; started her own publishing company in 1993; and founded Imagination Library in 1990, which donates books to children. Smarsh’s luminescent prose and briskly tempered storytelling make for an illuminating take on a one-of-a-kind artist.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        September 1, 2020
        A journalist and bestselling author pays tribute to country music legend Dolly Parton (b. 1946). Before her recent elevation to the status of universally beloved icon," writes Smarsh, Parton "was best known by many people as the punch line of a boob joke." This book, based on essays the author wrote for No Depression magazine in 2017, explores Parton's musical and cultural contributions. It also tells stories about the women so often at the heart of Parton's songs. Bent on becoming a star, she left for Nashville after high school. But she faced many challenges as an attractive woman working her way to the top. Parton's breakthrough song, "Dumb Blonde," released in 1967, foretold the attitude a largely sexist country music industry took toward the singer, especially in the early part of her career. Her first industry mentor, Porter Wagoner, for example, recognized Parton's musical talent, but he tried to use it to serve his own "thunderous ego." The quick-witted grit that helped her endure would later come out in the characters she played in hit Hollywood films like 9 to 5 (1980). Smarsh argues that this "humorous bravado" arises not just from Parton herself, but from the "culture of working-class women" she represents. The singer's savvy is also as much sexual as entrepreneurial. The author shows how Parton used both to reach success--and not just in music: She has said that Dollywood is "the most lucrative investment she ever made." Her influence is now so pervasive that she has become a cross-genre inspiration to young artists like hip-hop star Nicki Minaj. Though not a self-identified feminist, Parton exemplifies the "unsurpassed wisdom about how gender works in the world" that Smarsh believes is part of the working-class female experience. A highly readable treat for music and feminist scholars as well as Parton's legion of fans.

        COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        September 1, 2020

        In early April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic gained steam, country singer Dolly Parton donated one million dollars to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) to support coronavirus research. It wasn't her first gift to VUMC, and it was far from the first time she'd donated funds to a cause she deemed important. Yet a moderately viral Tweet declared, "It sounds like a gag." As Smarsh (Heartland) makes clear, such reactions to Parton's generosity aren't uncommon--as are similar responses to her music, her brand, and, in particular, her physical appearance. Despite that, Parton's decades-long career boasts an impressive talent, a strategic business acumen, and a large and diverse fan base, many of whom would otherwise claim to dislike country music. That kind of popularity is rare, especially for a musical genre frequently treated with derision. Part memoir, part tribute, the book is less about Parton's music than her identity and how she has embraced and uplifted it to the inspiration of many. Smarsh's insightful reflections on her experiences growing up in poverty on a Kansas farm are a springboard to discuss feminism, gender, sexuality, class, and race from an angle that is often ignored. VERDICT A thoughtful musing on the significance of Parton's work and success, and those she inspires.--Genevieve Williams, Pacific Lutheran Univ. Lib., Tacoma

        Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        October 15, 2020
        In her memoir of coming of age in rural America, Heartland (2018), journalist Smarsh told the stories of her fierce female predecessors in telling her own. As she writes in her new introduction to this inviting, enlightening study of Dolly Parton's life and work, first published serially in 2017 for the music journal No Depression, "Country music by women was the formative feminist text of my life." Throwing in her own bits of hard-earned wisdom and rolling easily among topics of gender and class, Smarsh examines how Parton came to be both unwaveringly of the people and on a plane of existence that's all her own?and how she unites an exceedingly divided country now. Readers get the impression that Smarsh read and listened to the artist's every word and watched every filmed second of her in order to recreate Parton here in fine, sparkling form. Smarsh's range as a storyteller (much like her subject's) makes this the best kind of American story, one of a person so extraordinarily vast that we find room for ourselves, too.Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

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shortDescription
In this Time Top 100 Book of the Year, the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Heartland "analyzes how Dolly Parton's songs—and success—have embodied feminism for working-class women" (People).
Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities—and strengths—of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving. In her family, she writes, "country music was foremost a language among women. It's how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren't discussed." And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton.

In this "tribute to the woman who continues to demonstrate that feminism comes in coats of many colors," Smarsh tells readers how Parton's songs have validated women...
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Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs
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      • description: Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts
      • code: BIO022000
      • description: Biography & Autobiography / Women
      • code: MUS010000
      • description: Music / Genres & Styles / Country & Bluegrass