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Book review: Peter, Paul and Mary: Fifty Years in Music and Life

Delayed for two years, this book is the first account of the American folk trio to be told by its members.

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Peter Paul and Mary: Fifty Years in Music and Life
by Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, Mary Travers
Charlesbridge

Delayed for two years, this book is the first account of the American folk trio to be told by its members.

Full of never-before-seen pictures and mementos, the 140-page LP-sized volume is worth the wait for fans and enthusiasts of the turbulent 1960s and beyond.

Although the trio lost Mary Travers - to leukaemia, aged 72 - in 2009, her voice is present throughout this candid narrative and she comes across as the dominant member. But, like many of their songs that perfectly blend their harmonies, the book presents a consensus view and, as the surviving members write in the preface, "you will not know who wrote what".

The book tells the story of the group from their modest origins in Greenwich Village in New York City, and how they worked their way up, in just a year, to sing for the president and first lady in 1962. Their dialogue with John F. Kennedy over the protest song If I Had a Hammer makes for fascinating reading, and is accompanied by a reprint of JFK's signed thank-you note.

The story then fast-forwards to November 23, 1963, when the trio cancelled a concert in Dallas, Texas: it was the day after Kennedy was assassinated.

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