Woody Guthrie: A Life

by Joe Klein

Woody Guthrie: A Life Klein, Joe

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Politics, Americana

490 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Joe Klein is a longtime Washington, D.C. and New York journalist and columnist, known for his novel Primary Colors, an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign. Klein is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Since 2003 he has been a contributor at the current affairs Time news group. In April 2006, he published Politics Lost, a book on what he calls the "pollster-consultant industrial complex". He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, LIFE and Rolling Stone.

Reviews

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly essential reading. I've been a fan of the *idea* of Woody Guthrie since I was a kid, but this was the first time I've really sat down and learned about the man. Hooo boy. I'm even more in love with his talent and silliness now, and (for better or worse) much more aware of the myriad tragedies in his life, and how they shaped his work and legacy. A well-written account of a tough life. *Very* well researched and for the most part objective and not reverential.

[Jonfaith]

I read this with my mates during that blurred summer of 2000. I finished it flying to San Francisco for my brother's wedding. I was hungover both ways on that trip. the only time I've ever flown with my parents. The only time. Klein's approach is solid, depicting the myth, sifting through evidence, standing in unblemished awe of the impact and legacy of the artist. Guthrie could be a real son of a bitch. He also had a huge heart. Standing in the airport waiting my for my parents to collect themselves, that felt strident yet elusive.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would get 4 1/2 stars if GR had such a thing. It's a fantastic book. Not only did it tell a thorough and complete view of an American icon from birth to death, but it encompassed both his own view of himself and how he was seen by others. And as the best biographies do, it included the culture and society around him in such a way as to give him context and educate the reader. This wasn't *just* a book about Woody Guthrie (who I've decided I really wouldn't like very much at all!), but was ALSO a book about the Dust Bowl, communism in the early- to mid-1900's, and the rise of folk music as a genre.

Totally readable and absolutely fascinating. I loved it.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very in depth and well researched. I can't imagine a more thorough investigation of Woody's life.
Other than an unhealthy interest in his sex life (via extensive reproduction of letters to his wife) this was a riveting read.

[Manzoid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography is stunningly and painfully intimate. Joe Klein did a fantastic job. This is a great read.

Guthrie is a tremendous American icon who not enough of us actually know about or perhaps have even heard of. He was a thousand contradictions. In his art and in his life, in his outrageous, childlike, precocious, brooding, energetic, and endlessly subversive behavior... he was just utterly himself, he embodied a particular American brand of freedom in life, outlook, and sense of possibility.

Even if you haven't got time to read this book, make sure the kids around you know all the verses to "This Land Is Your Land". You may not agree with the politics but it's worth knowing what the man actually said, it makes you think.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Woody Guthrie! Sadly the author of this book somewhat tainted that for me. Joe Klein's liberalism-or-whatever sometimes misrepresents the politics of a deeply political character, and the book really suffers due to this sad fact. Klein describes racist rioters as, I believe, "a proletarian mob." Yuck. He even tries to rationalize someone's involvement in the KKK. In this book there is also an excess inclusion of private, lewd letters which Woody surely would not want to be read by you or me.

This book is very flawed and I could only recommend it to staunch fans of folk music. It is very well researched but doesn't take itself too seriously which is refreshing in the genre of the artist-as-genius hagiographies, but again, wholly disappointing.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes noting the context and mental state we have when reading certain books says more than the actual words in the text. Certainly everything we take in is subject to interpretation and internalization. It's hard not to be nostalgic about home when you're an American living in Dubai and reading a book like this. I started it when I was home for a visit in rural Michigan and finished it back in Dubai. Not quite 500 pages about one extraordinary life. And Woody never seemed to quite fit anywhere. His creativity, eccentricity and his drive for freedom caused his success but also isolated him. There's something relatable in that. It appears He was alone in many ways yet had a huge heart or at least a great deal of empathy. Sometimes those with the biggest hearts have a hard time with relationships. I don't know why that is but I think the ability to look inside and see the unity outside (and the time it takes to do that kind of reflection) has something to do with it. Woody's voice, soul and love for humanity - the image he represents in American life is his legacy much more so than his music. That image can never live up to the reality of his humanized life and Joe Klein shows us a lot of the flaws which makes this a great, well-balanced read.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too many biographies of music artists suffer from an over-reliance on quoted secondary sources, yielding books that don't feel "authored" because they lack a consistent narrative voice. I've put many such books aside in frustration over their prolific and unselective use of quotes that tend to vary wildly in tone, insight, and reliability.

This book is different. It was published in 1980, when Woody (who died in 1967) would have been just 68, and most of the people who had known him well were still alive and happy to share their memories with the author. This is one of the great strengths of this book: in constructing his narrative, the author relies heavily on knowledge informed by—but not direct quotes from—these reminiscences. He does quote selectively, but he doesn't overload us with quoted material, and most of the quotes he includes are from letters written by Woody himself.

Woody's life story is certainly book-worthy. The author of more than 3000 songs, Woody was an inspiration to, and huge influence on, so many more recent and contemporary artists (Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, ...). He grew up in Oklahoma and Texas, but lived most of his adult life in Los Angeles and New York. He "hoboed" around the country frequently, hosted radio programs in both LA and NY, served in World War II in both the merchant marine and the army, fathered 7 children with 3 different wives (but was always closest to his second wife Marjorie, a Jewish ballet dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, with whom he lived in Coney Island during the most stable periods of his adult life and had three children, including Arlo), fought hard for social justice, and had very little interest in money. He also suffered more than his share of profound personal tragedy, including the debilitating neurological illness that affected the last quarter of his life.

The overall result of this felicitous combination of talented author and fascinating subject is a lively and moving biography really brings its subject to life.

[Andrew Lindstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fairly well written about an incredibly interesting person, but it doesn’t do a good job of engaging with the political aspects of Guthrie’s life, and when it does it seems more interested in falling over itself to bash communism than to engage with why it had a broad base of popular support during the Depression. The choice to publish two page erotic letters that Woody wrote to Marjorie is also sort of baffling - a few quotes would have been fine and felt less voyeuristic.

Worth reading, especially the parts about his battle with Huntington’s disease, but also sort of baffling at times

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This land is your land, and this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream Waters
This land was made for you and me." -Excerpt from This Land is Your Land, by Woody Guthrie

Every so often, a book I'm reading leads me to my next one. In this case, it was Bruce Springsteen's biography, Born to Run. In his biography, The Boss heaped praise on Woody Guthrie: A Life, about an American folk singer who later inspired Bob Dylan who, in turn, inspired Bruce Springsteen to write songs about the American experience, especially the down-and-out working class.

Woody, who I was wholly unfamiliar with before reading this book, was best known for This Land is Your Land, which many thought to be a contender to replace The Star Spangled Banner as our national anthem.

Woody was from sunbaked and windswept Oklahoma. As a child, he was a charismatic boy, but an outcast at school who spent much of his time deliberately alone. His childhood was also not an easy one - his mother died of Huntington's disease while in an insane asylum and his sister died due to severe burns after her school dress caught fire in a freak incident at home. In fact, both causes of death - fire and Huntington's - would continue to wreak havoc on the Guthrie's for the next several decades.

Woody dropped out of school, but was very much a lifelong learner. He was a commited bibliophile, and scrawled his name on the punch card of countless books at his local library.

As his career began, Woody didn't seem to care much for money. In fact, he was known for giving it away to others when he had it. He was persistenly content, seemingly unaffected by America's Great Depression and Dust Bowl, subsisting fine at a time when most of the country was not.

Once called "Shakespeare in overalls," Woody found his niche singing political songs in a traditional folk fashion that captivated listeners. He disdained politicians, and often wrote songs that were performed at migrant camps and labor strikes, or included in labor union songbooks.

While he served for a period of time as a Merchant Marine during World War II, he largely fought the war on fascism with his songs and his poems, writing lyrics and stanzas that mobilized Americans.

And, yet, with all that has been written in the positive about him thus far, Woody was also a bit of a (pardon my language) wanderlust fuck-up. He was a philanderer, cheating on his own wife with other married women, and often abandoned his children for months at a time until his heartstrings pulled more than than the ones on his guitar. It wasn't uncommon for Woody to stand up at the dinner table and announce he was heading west to California and would be leaving immediately - with seemingly no forethought or planning. He struggled with alcoholism and, sadly, was even asked, by one of his own children, with tears in her eyes, when dropping by unnanounced after months on the road, to please leave, telling him that her mother (Woody's first wife) had made a good life for them and that he'd only upend it.

The tragedy of Woody's life only multiplied from there. At 40, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and then Huntington's - the same disease which killed his mother. While the disease ravaged his body, his inspiration on American folk music seemingly took off. Even young and yet undiscovered Bob Dylan made a pilgrimage to visit Woody before he passed.

Woody Guthrie, without a doubt, left a lasting legacy on American politics and entertainment. In fact, some of his songs lyrics would cut deep with America today, such as his lyrics about immigration:

"Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria.
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane.
All they will call you will be...deportees."

He was a talented man with a troubled life. Book-wise, while it may seem insulting to say his life story doesn't justify 470 pages, I did find quite a few of the chapters to be rather tedious and redundant. I'm also not quite sure why the author decided to include unabridged personal letters of Woody's that were highly sexual; it seems to me that Woody's sexual escapades already underscored that character point.

3.5 out of 5

[Himanshu Damle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I might not necessarily be a communist, but I have been in the red all my life", thus begins Joe Klein's fourth chapter of a remarkable biography of a remarkable personality, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (Woody Guthrie), father of the modern folk music in America. Known to have inspired the likes of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and even Bruce Springsteen among others, Woody Guthrie (WG, hereafter) was known for smash hits like "This Land is Your Land" and "Oklahoma Hills". The former was considered to be the Marxist Response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", and has become a patriotic anthem in kind, and was also favored by the fluctuating coterie of folklorists to have potentially become the National Anthem of the US of A instead of the "Star Spangled Banner".

Diagnosed with the rare Huntington's Chorea (Huntington's Disease), which WG inherited from his mother, the legendary anti-fascist and anti-materialist singer, songwriter, poet, author of the fictitiously-interrupted autobiography "Bound for Glory", WG passed on to the other side at the age of 55, leaving behind a legacy that breathes through the American country music even to this day. A prodigious painter (cartoonist), and a prolific writer, his was a life on the move, living and surviving in conditions of abject poverty, crashing in with his friends from the Almanac Singers, abandoned pick-up trucks, and hospitals, interspersed with short stints in decent living conditions while married to his second and third wives. That his status was legendary unmatched and unparalleled could be easily decipherable from Alan Lomax's quote about him, that WG was the best discovery made by Lomax, who is himself credited as the man who recorded the world.

Woody was born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1912 to Charles and Nora. Charles Guthrie was into real estate business, where he was more unsuccessful than not, and was an active democratic politician in the county. He was alleged to be involved with 39 others in the infamous lynching of African-American mother-son duo Laura and LD Nelson,a year before Woody was born. Woody wrote songs about the incident and also alleged that Charles showed increasing affiliation with the KKK in 1915. While poor with his school grades, Woody was a voracious reader and would often sneak into libraries reading texts on psychology. His interest in music was ignited by his childhood friend, George, an African-American boy who shone shoes for a living, and was adept at playing the harmonica. This is where WG's musical talent was piqued. Even as the family undertook some bizarre outings into the Chisos mountains across the border in Mexico in search of silver mines that WG's ancestor had marked as his property, WG was moved by the hardships of labor he witnessed along the way, compelling him to lyricize it through his 'miner's song'. A chapter on this adventure was struck off editorially from his autobiography.

In his early years, fire-related accidents made their first mark, when he lost his sister Clara to severe burns, caused by a tiff between his mother and sister. Such a cause of tragedy was to repeat itself on three more occasions, when his 4-year old daughter Cathy, from his second wife Marjorie succumbed to burns in a freak accident. His father, Charles too was a victim of burns, but survived. Last, but not the least, he himself suffered severe burns on his right hand rendering its use to nought. These episodes exacerbated his personality resulting in frequent feuds with Marjorie and Annette, his third wife, both of whom ultimately separated from him, with Marjorie tending and nursing him till the evening before the morning WG died.

During the Second World War, he was enlisted into the marine merchant navy and undertook three visits across the Atlantic. Post the war, he joined the army as a teletypist, and was discharged, whereafter he married Marjorie, who was a sexual conservative to begin. That she ceased to be one later is seen by scores upon scores of erotic letters that WG penned for her, which further helped stamp his reputation of someone with an enormously insatiable sexual prowess. WG had eight children from his three wives.

While, he steadfastly denied himself as a communist, his songs bordered on socialism, anti-fascism, political activism, labour unions, and the plight of working-class people. Trained in the classical genre of harmonica and acoustic guitar, he wasn't pleased when Bob Dylan went electric in the Newport Festival. For Woody, singing and songwriting was, he said in 1941,

"I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose…I am out to fight those kinds of songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter how hard it’s run you down nor rolled over you, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in your self and in your work."

Criss-crossing the country in the company of Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, the conservative turn in the American politics, which then graduated in the negative sense towards reactionism saw the folklorists under increasing scrutiny forcing many of them underground, but WG wouldn't budge. He shifted towards writing copiously and finished a 900-pager "Seeds of Man", which was refused to be published in the original form due to the length of the text and use of expletives, considered unsuitable for the American audiences!!! Later, he did revisit the draft, shortened it considerably, which saw the light of the day posthumously. His contributions to children's stories through songs are still a literature to reckon with.

With the third marriage on the tenterhooks, his alcoholism and smoking increased significantly. Not known to talk a lot, his social behavior nevertheless took a turn down while the Huntington's caught up. Not known to have a cure even today, the disease slowly ate into him, making his final days a sorry portrait of the legendary status that he had acquired by then. He had expressed a strong desire to be cremated, and the final rites were a low-key affair, and his ashes were handed over to Marjorie in a can, who couldn't open it to let the ashes to the wind, but instead decided to immerse the can as a whole in the sea, where after a while it sunk.

His "Bound for Glory" was made into a film in 1976, and towards the end of the last century, the English musician, Billy Bragg, who has also written the foreword to Joe Klein's biographical sketch released the critically acclaimed "Mermaid Avenue", by setting to music Woody's voluminous corpus of unrecorded lyrics in two volumes.

Joe Klein's biography is a remarkably well researched work of WG, about whom, a complete life sketch is probably not written earlier. The 550+ pages are a view into the social history of the times, where one of the main protagonist was the inimitable Woody Guthrie, who lives on and resonates along...A definitive read.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not only a masterful biography of one of America’s most mythical artists, it provides an origin story of the folksy, rambling, singer-songwriter archetype many of my favorite artists fit into. As usual, many of the stories would make my eyes roll if they were included in a work of fiction: The repeated tragedies befalling the Guthrie family related to fire. The difficulty in differentiating between Woody’s personality and Huntington’s Disease and how that may have contributed to his creativity, prolific output, as well as the internal demons he battled throughout his life.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully wrought story of the amazing life of Woody Guthrie, America's bard. Klein has done a superb job of bringing out all the prickly complexity of Woody's character as well as his incredible talent. Very highly recommended.

[Bill S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the afterward, Klein tells us that he is more intersted in Guthrie's life than his music, which explains my initial disappointment with the book. But, with such a life it is a great read.

Born Oklahoma 1912 and named for Woodrow Wilson. Father a democrat who held some local political positions but always thwarted from statewide office by political machine. Dad was well-read, ambitious, and made money in real-estate but when oil boom came he declined considerably financially. He was fiercely anti-socialist and took part in the lynching of a Black family. KKK member.
Mother was mentally ill. Daughter died from burns from her? Or was daughter covering for her when she said she lit herself on fire? Set Woody’s father on fire and was committed while he recovered. She DIed of Huntington chorea.After mother’s commitment, Woody lived alone and with various families as a teen and traveled some. Observed hobo culture. Rejoined his father in the panhandle but often stayed with others or rented motel rooms. Father eventually on skid row, but always wore a tie as a symbol of dignity.

Never achieved at school but was at library reading all the time when a late teen and into early 20’s. He was interested in a great many things. He would plunge into a topic learn everything and then move on. Got into a fundamentalist church and knew and loved bible, but then moved on. Read “The Prophet by Kahil Gilbran and loved the idea that ther is a unity to all things and every living thing had value. This led him briefly to be a spiritualist. No charge, just a donation if you wish.

From early age an outcast who performed jigs and played harmonica for others. Took up guitar as a teen.
Country music was looked down upon and since poor listened to it, was no market. But, then the Carter Family and Jimmie Rogers and Grand Ol Oprey came in the 1920’s. Old time mountain standards and gospel. Rogers borrowed from blues and was less traditional. He formed a trio with a guitarist and fiddle player. They played house parties, dances, on radio. He also did lots of comedy on stage mostly physical.

Money bothered Woody. People acted like animals to get it and losing it drove them crazy. Thus, squandered any windfalls and did not care to think about it beyond what was needed for immediate use.

Money was not a problem for him in Depression. He was a great artist and had perfect penmanship. Made money making signs for businesses. Also sent in art and slogans to companies, not asking for money. Sometimes they sent it and offered him a job but he would say no. Was a soda jerk who sold booze under the table. Many ways to make money and lots of opportunities but turned them all down which frustrated his friends.

A wanderer - He would unexpectedly and inexplicably vanish for months at a time traveling the country as a hobo, although he feared the trains as dangerous. Would abandon his wife and kids. One time finished playing a song with a buddy and got up and announced he was going to California again and left.

In LA he established himself on radio with a woman he called lefty lou. They sang old songs that were familiar to all the migrants in California, often changing the words. He was a master at word games and coming up with new lyrics on the spot. While not a good guitar player or singer his harmonies with lefty lou worked and people loved them. Published own song book.

Not political until he came to see the treatment of migrant farm workers in California. Saw communists as the only ones willing to fight for them. “I’m not a red, but I’ve been in the red my whole life.” Perhaps never joined party but a strong supporter and friend of many. If he did join he probably quite after the first or second discipline. Wrote a column for the Daily worker and raised money for labor causes. Followed party line including supporting FDR in 1944 and then Wallace in 1948.

1940 was his breakthrough in NYC. Benefit concert got him noticed. Invited to DC where he recorded for National Archives (not released until 1965); recorded Dust Bowl Ballads album which sold only 500-1000 copies but one of most important recordings in history. CBS radio hired him in NYC. They paid him well and he moved family to nice apartment. ANd then, he threw it all away. Felt guilty he was a sell-out. Would have to tone down politics. Quit and abruptly moved family to California.

It was at this time that he became close with Leadbelly. Had been recorded in prison along with many other Blacks. The man who recorded him got the governor to pardon him for an assault charge. He had previously been pardoned for murder! Woody also became friends with Burl Ives although he did not like his music, and met and befriended Pete Segar while being recorded in DC for National Archives. Seegar just learning the banjo at the time.

Guthrie was legit on race. One time was staying with relatives in Louisiana. Told them he had eaten at Black restaurants on way there from New York. The enraged man of the house asked what woody would think if a Black married one of his daughters. He said, I wouldn’t mind that a bit. The relative threw him out of the house. When he was told he could not sit with two Blacks he had just performed with for dinner, he told them he would meet them at the Train station and then turned the buffet table on its side and walked away.

Guthrie a part of the democratization of the arts and culture during the 1930’s. An appreciation for America. Having survived depression without resorting to extremism meant that we were an extraordinary people. Those who had suffered and survived were special and should be learned from. Thus, the oral history project, the interest in folk music, Thomas Hart Betnton, Dorthea Lange. The common man was celebrated for his resilience. Very few of the photos taken by Farm Security Administration showed people choking with hunger or groveling. Pete Seegar and Woody were a reaction against tin pan alley music production and saw music as political.

“This Land is Your Land” - Written in reaction to God Bless America which Woody hated, because it suggested we should do nothing. God will save us. An atheist by now. Wrote it originally as “God Blessed America for Me” as the chorus. Put it away for 5 years. In 1944 a folklorist with a recording studio recorded Guthrie and others in marathon sessions and this included the This Land we know today. Based on an old church tune that Carters had also borrowed.

“Union Maid” written in response to criticism that his labor songs did not sing about women. Included the iconic line “I’m stickin with the union.”

Hired for a month by power company in northwest mostly because they pitied him when he showed up with his family. Wrote a bunch of songs including the Grand Coulee.

Almanac Singers - Pete Segar, Woody and others did peace songs when Soviets were neutral then switched to union songs. Members were strong communists. Travelled from one strike area to the next, spoke to strikers and then wrote songs right on the spot and performed them to promote the strike. Once again, they were only writing lyrics. Borrowed old tunes. Once Pearl Harbor came they ditched everything for pro-war songs. This is when Woody put “This Machine Kills Fascists” on guitar. Group would get noticed but then chances for big success would be ended once it came to light they were communists. Broke apart when most went into service.

Lived in New York away from family during war. A publisher had him rewrite the draft of his autobiography - Bound For Glory - an old song he sang for a group of hobos on a train. At times it was more a novel than a fact based autobiography. Got good reviews and Woody wrote fiction from time to time. Many projects that did not seem to get finished. Became a celebrity in NYC with book published. Lots of radio appearances as well as the usual performances.

Second wife, Marjorie, was a dancer for a show that Woody was a part of. She got pregnant while they were both married to others. This would eventually be Arlo’s mom. Had 4 kids together. They lived together on Coney Island but Woody continued to have flings.

WWII Service - He was in his 30’s. When the draft board came for him in 43 he joined merchant marines. Did it again when the army wanted him. The third time the merchant marine rejected him for his connections to communism that he did not deny. Trained in army but not deployed. In Merchant Marines he was torpedoed and also on a ship that was hit with a remote mine.

NYC recordings - in between deployments in 1944 he was recorded along with other folk singers. Some albums came out of this which sold a few copies to nYC leftists.

Post WWII - Could not decide if he wanted to be a writer or singer primarily. Finally finished a novel only to have it rejected. He Seegar and others formed the People’s Songs group in Greenwich Village. Song writers from the left and also arranged gigs. But, much had changed. Organized labor not interested in folk singers with ties to communists any longer even though Communists had helped them greatly in the past. Workers had found prosperity. Also, took to writing long ballads and when an audience was not receptive he became hostile to them. Continued to write songs constantly. Children's songs were good but Deportee in 1949 was his last great work. Woody’s drinking more of a problem now. Many stories of how he loved to provoke others in social situations. Went to prison for writing pornographic letters to a woman - something he did often. Really quite a jerk at times!

Tragedy - His daughter Cathy died from an electrical fire as a little girl - the second person in his life lost to fire. Unlike his other children they had been very close.

The Weavers - when People’s Songs collapsed, Seegar formed this and found commercial success first as a novelty act. Blacklisted. Came back in 60’s without Seegar.

Publishing - If you change a folk song significantly you can claim royalties so a publisher had Woody record hundreds of songs looking for songs to publish - “This Land is Your Land” was one of them. Eventually, in the 60’s this brought in 50,000 a year. At this point Guthrie in hospital and a trust fund set up for children of his second marriage.

Behavior became increasingly erratic in early 1950’s. He became dangerous to kids and wife so she kicked him out. He drifted out to California where he took another man’s wife, aged 20. Both got divorced. They lived in a swamp in Florida. Had a kid. Again, his behavior became erratic - was it drinking? Finally at age 40 diagnosed with Huntington chorea, a nervous disease that made you shake uncontrollably and slowly rotted the brain. At first he was able to check himself out of hospital because he was there voluntarily. Took one last hobo trip in which he got arrested many times. Eventually, he was committed to a hospital in New Jersey. Dylan who had mimicked him met him there and was taken in by the Gleasons who took Woody out of the hospital every Sunday to their place where old friends and up and coming folk singers came to pay homage. The folk craze was hot and they knew Guthrie. Music industry had embraced it as an alternative to Rock. First were clean and safe like Kingston Trio. But then Phil Ochs and Dylan came along. Dylan was a disappointment to Seegar. To seegar music was to be political and pure. Dylan got into Folk because it seemed to offer more freedom than formulaic rock and his music became more personal. Making popular music not a problem to him.

Religion - found Jesus at the end. Prior to this he believed in god but did not want to play favorites.

Eventually his second wife took charge of his care and sidelined the Gleasons taking Woody to Brooklyn hospital and bringing him to Coney island on Sundays. Died at age of 55 in 1967.

A 1953 benefit concert for his care is what got him noticed. In addition, This Land had become a standard in schools and recorded by many. Whitewashed of its radicalism some thought it a better national anthem.

Americana - singer songwriters of 90’s who would not call themselves folksingers - less political, but outside of mainstream. Their independence goes back to Guthrie. It was his sense of freedom that made him American.

“You can only write what you see.”

[Ray Dunsmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

To tell the truth, I'm not entirely certain what I was expecting from this one. Woody Guthrie is a man I knew primarily as an idea, the scrawny Okie who crossed the country several times over with nothing but the shirt on his back, a guitar and a song for every conceivable occasion - especially labor rallies and strikes. I'll even admit slightly shamefully that the only song of his I genuinely knew was "This Land is Your Land" - and I didn't even know about the excised leftist verses that the whole idea really pivoted around, the one extolling the virtues of trespassing and the ending where he stumbles across a breadline and wonders if this land truly was made for you and me until maybe a couple years ago. On some level, I might just have been curious to see where exactly the American folk tradition of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger sprung from.
What I got from this is a biography so unsparingly honest in its warts-and-all portrayal of Guthrie that it practically reads as a hit job. Guthrie was a true eccentric - and unfortunately, he was the kind of eccentric that relied on the kindness of those around him to survive with almost no thought given to how he'd repay that kindness in turn. He comes across here as the kind of guy far more likely to entrap you in a vicious diatribe about the failures of your own personal politics when stacked up against his personal brand of communist utopia than to help out with the dishes after dinner or take care of his own kids (or, hell, even to bathe himself). In this, his strongest legacy shows itself - Woody, for better and for worse, is one of the true forefathers of the American leftist movement.
In fact, the biggest takeaway I got from this book is simply this: the left really has always been like this in America. The various communists that populate this story are people who dream big, wild ideas of freedom and equality for the working poor - and frequently, they even build the mechanisms and structures that get this work done on scale to a remarkable degree. And just about every time they get going somewhere, factional infighting and rigorous purity testing of those allowed to join the ranks fuck them up at every conceivable turn - until they finally face their most formidable opponent in Joseph McCarthy and, their numbers dwindled and fractured, they fold and collapse in the face of the Red Scare. It's a cautionary tale that my contemporaries today seem to be repeating as passionately as ever, like they're carrying on the family tradition. Were Woody one of us, I'd bet good money on him being an outspoken personality on Twitter and I mean that in the most derogatory way I can.
As a person, he just seems like the type of guy best enjoyed from afar, in a crowd that's on strike in the 30s. Or maybe if you're building a dam. He's inspirational as long as he isn't in smelling range. I know there's a good degree of his later behavior that you can attribute to the unfortunate onset of Huntington's - his weirdly pushy eroticism in particular - so i don't want to seem like I'm punching a sick man for showing symptoms. (by the way, it's one thing to know that he wrote explicit erotic letters to his wife but my god, I could've lived a full life without reading lengthy excerpts of Woody Guthrie narrating the act of fucking) But even as a young man, he was remarkably awful to his first wife and kids, building his legend at their expense by leaving them to languish wherever they'd settled last while he gallivanted around the country playing Voice of the People. It's hard to tell how much of his persona was genuinely authentic and how much was a deliberate put-on that saw him play-acting out the part of a semi-literate podunk in a condescending attempt to relate to the working man.
Quite frankly, if the man really is deserving of his title as the Father of American Folk Music, this biography does him a remarkable disservice. And if it's accurate? Then Woody Guthrie was kind of an embarrassing manchild. We don't need more guys like this on the left today. We already have tons.

The original "This Land is Your Land" is still a pretty great song, though. He gets at least one. Best example of his style of music, though, is and remains his son Arlo's "Alice's Restaurant Massacree". It's nice he lived just long enough to hear it, at least.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an epic. Woody Guthrie's life was something of an epic, too, but the book is so clearly based on what could be learned from written correspondence and Woody's own book that, particularly during his adult life, it can read more like a literary analysis or psychological profile based on writing samples than a biography.

Woody famously came from the Oklahoma dust bowl and roamed and rambled as a folksinger through the early-to-mid Twentieth Century. In his travels, he picked up an abiding love of communism and the American worker (the "People"). After settling in New York, he enjoyed some commercial success, but was ultimately sabotaged by a combination of the vagaries of folk music popularity and his own erratic behavior. By the time folk music was popular again in the 1960s, he had devolved into a semi-functioning state of psychiatric and neurological disease.

Klein's book delivers a captivating early history of Woody's life--assisted no doubt, by the self-conscious, romantic, autobiographical volumes Woody himself wrote--but fills the gap between Woody's own organized writings and more recent contemporaneous recollections with what seems exclusively to be his letters with his second wife Marjorie. Not that the letters aren't interesting--Woody was an obsessively prolific and provocative writer--however, the book runs a bit long on tangential commentary about the how and where of, for example, Woody's training with the military, and is short on the details of his songwriting and activism.

Despite some slower portions, this book is among the most complete for information about Woody's life and politics. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in Woody Guthrie, the early folk movement in the US, or social pop culture phenomena.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

To reduce these truly incredible 512 pages down to one word: Breathtaking.

The scope of this biography was as great as the scope of America itself. Interspersed amongst Joe Klein's detailed historical explanation of the Dust Bowl, the Communist party in America, and the folk-music scene as it evolved from the 30s to the 60s is actual primary text from Woody Guthrie himself.

This book is magnificent in all that it portrays, and not a dull moment exists throughout the pages. Every time I picked this book up I felt that I learned something new -- and beyond that, I felt that I understood something new.

Joe Klein brings to light the struggles that existed in the folk music scene. The rivalries and the depth of the radicalism that truly existed in the time. He breathes life and factual information into the slow degeneration of Guthrie from outspoken uncompromising lone wolf to the courageous man with an active mind who no longer could control his body.

Woody Guthrie was a remarkable soul who grasped what(ever) it was to be an American. I wish more people would read this book.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is pretty much the best book ever. Nonfiction, but it reads like a great, engrossing novel. Joe Klein really seems to understand and love Woody Guthrie, which may sound obvious but is important in making a biography deeply great. Woody's politics and the general politics of the early 1900s really interest me, and this bio goes into those issues--money, poverty, class, farmers, cops, etc. Also, Klein's account of Woody's disease, Huntington's Chorea, grabbed hold of my imagination and hasn't let go for all the years since I read this book. It sounds like WG was so prolific, including writing 50-page sexy letters to his wife every damn day, because of the disease's deteriorating effects on his brain. Just so interesting. If you have an antipathy to nonfiction (Elizabeth!), don't be scurred of this book. It's so worth reading.

[Kim Ruehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without question, one of the finest biographies I've ever read. Guthrie was a walking puzzle in his day, and remains as such today. His exquisite talent seemed to have been channeled out of nothing and nowhere, like some magical quality which just drew strangers to his study. Klein does a wonderful job of showing that, though his talent was inexplicable, his personality and motivation were well-formed and fiercely honed.

Anyone interested in American folk music, the way the music of the mid-20th Century has influenced most areas of our culture ever since, the labor movement, social change, social justice and the arts, hobo culture, the American Communist party, McCarthyism, storytelling, contemporary history, what constitutes an artist's clear conscience, or simply who this Woody Guthrie character was...would be well-advised to pick up this book. (And, of course, read it.)

[WM Rine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the best biography I have ever read. Klein not only untangles the complex man beneath the myth of the traveling man who penned so many indelible American folk songs. He also gives you the tumultuous times in which Guthrie lived in fascinating detail. (He seems to have had a knack for finding himself in places where things weren't peaceful or settled.) From the oil boom towns of Oklahoma and the Texas in the teens, twenties and thirties, to great migration to California during the Depression and Dust Bowl, the doings of the Communist Party during the Depression, the growing folk music scene in New York in the 40s and 50s -- Klein brings it all in meticulous (and new slow) detail. Even if you're only marginally interested in Guthrie's life or music, this will fascinate.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

ever since i borrowed/stole my mom's box of springsteen's "live 75/85" and heard the boss stutter out "there's this fellow joe klein who wrote this book called woody guthrie a life and it's, it's a really good book" i wanted to find time for it. and i did, and it was well worth it. frightfully sad at times (particularly after hearing the billy bragg/wilco version of "one by one) and frightfully funny at others, really pretty important to anybody making american music i'd guess.

[Marion · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book. Lots of history through the 20s and the depression years. Woody Guthrie was an amazing man, but he sure had his quirks! I guess the disease was eating away at him. The music and his songs still live on today. This Land is Your Land, what a song, I watched it on U tube with Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen. The book captures that time and the spirit of Woody, despite all his problems, he was a brilliant man!

[Diane Mueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woody Guthrie came from an area in OKlahoma that my mother came from and maybe that is why I knew his name growing up. I remember having This Land is Your Land in our school books when I was young but I never truly knew much about the man until I read this book. His story is tragic and difficult to read at times. Warning some very sexually graphic letters of his are shared in one chapter. Overall it was well written and gave insight into the man and his history.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Life is a big book that offers a comprehensive overview of Woody Guthrie's life. Sadly, most of it's not that interesting. Author Klein fails to weave the wealth of biographical detail into a compelling story. Guthrie mostly comes off as an undeserving dick, a drunk, and a philanderer. But I guess he did write some good songs.

[Rheanna doncses · Rating 5 out of 5]

i recieved this book as a xmas present, and was skeptical. But I have to tell you, it became one of my favorites. This is a story about woody, but also his entire family. It is heartbreaking! After you have reaf this book, listen to the billy bragg/ wilco albums based on guthrie songs- you'll be crying!

[Stephen Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best biographies not only tell the story of it's subject but brings to life the world and the times in which the subject lived. No bio I have ever read does so like this one. It is the best biography I have ever read. One could see how not only Woody Guthries music but how his life could be so influential.

[Diane Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this a well-detailed and honest biography of a remarkable life, but the author also gives excellent historical background. The reader gets a nice background in the Dust Bowl, Okies, American Communism, and the boom of folk music in the 1940's and the 1960's. Guthrie's life wasn't always a role model, but the author looks at his life honestly, and there is still much to be admired.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book out in high school because I had to do a project on someone from the Great Depression. I ended up reading the whole book. A well written book about an interesting man who had an interesting life. I think I might read it again.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's been a few years since i read this book, but i do remember that while i was reading it, i couldn't put it down. i carried it around in my bag and would read a little bit at a time any chance i got.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes biographies can be sort of a snooze, but there was nothing snore-inducing about this one. A really interesting read about a completely fascinating character. Highly recommended -- especially for fans of roots music....or music in general.