She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

(Paperback)

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Dolly Parton is the reigning queen of country music, an iconic artist in command of her own career and image, and a thriving business empire to boot. But her rise was not an easy one: born into poverty in east Tennessee, she left for Nashville at 18 with her belongings in three paper bags. Even as she shot to fame and conquered a male-dominated world that underestimated her at every turn, she never lost her connection to the working-class community she sprang from.

In this affectionate, sharply insightful book, Sarah Smarsh draws on her own experience growing up in rural Kansas to craft a resonant portrait of Parton's cultural importance, above all for the often unheard women who populate her songs: struggling mothers, pregnant teenagers, diner waitresses with deadbeat boyfriends. At once candidly intimate and searchingly analytical, She Come By It Natural captures the enduring appeal of this singular star.

Reviews

'Smarsh and Parton are a perfect pairing for the kind of in-depth examinationinto gender and class and what it means to be a woman and a working class hero that feels particularly important right now' - Refinery29

'A praise song for the cultural icon... deeply personal' - LA Times

Author Bio

Sarah Smarsh is a journalist who has covered socioeconomic class, politics and public policy for the New York Times, the Guardian, the New Yorker, Harper's 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. A recent research fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and former writing professor, Smarsh is a frequent speaker and commentator on economic inequality. She lives in Kansas.