So too do these chapters illuminate how many civil rights struggles, like women’s liberation and fair wages for disabled workers, are also, at their core, labor struggles. Each chapter contains capsule biographies of working-class heroes, along with a painstaking focus on those who were hidden or dismissed from the movement. Rather than structure this comprehensive history chronologically, Kelly organizes it into chapter-sized profiles of different labor sectors, from sex workers to incarcerated laborers to domestic workers. Fight Like Hell will be your indispensable guide to the past, present, and future of organized labor. With a galvanizing groundswell of unionization efforts rocking mega-corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, there’s never been a better time to learn about the history of the American labor movement. But the highs are there too-like his 50-year marriage to actress Joanne Woodward-as well as the mysteries of making art, and the “imponderable of being a human being.” All told, the memoir is an extraordinary act of resurrection and reimagination. Now, those transcripts have been streamlined into this honest and unvarnished memoir, in which the actor speaks openly about his traumatic childhood, his lifelong struggle with alcoholism, and his tormenting self-doubt. Luckily, Stern kept transcripts-over 14,000 pages worth. The whole enterprise was destined to become Newman’s authorized biography, but his feelings on the project soured in 1998, he gathered the tapes in a pile and set fire to them.

With the actor’s encouragement, Stern also recorded hundreds of hours worth of interviews with his friends, family, and colleagues. Between 19, Newman sat down with screenwriter Stewart Stern for a series of soul-baring interviews about his life and career. But that’s the particular magic trick of this memoir, assembled by way of a literary scavenger hunt.

After six decades of Hollywood superstardom, it’s difficult to imagine that anything could remain unknown about Paul Newman.

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