The man who never died

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 Wobbliest Hill was the union’s most prominent and prolific songwriter, its troubadour of dissent. In death, he became labor’s most venerated martyr, immortalized in the ballad familiarly known as “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night” and celebrated by musical inheritors like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. In this biography of Hill, William M. Adler draws on years of intensive archival research to deconstruct the murder case against him, presenting extensive new exculpatory evidence, and arguing persuasively for the guilt of another man. Adler not only brings clarity to Hill’s controversial death, but also vibrantly renders his life and times. Hill’s story, 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. Hill pioneered the use of musical parody as both organizing tool and weapon in an era when class warfare was raging and capitalism was on the run. `The Man Who Never Died’ chronicles Hill’s remarkable transformation from itinerant and anonymous immigrant to world-renowned bard of the working class, labor icon, and imperishable legend.