Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
by Ed Cray
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"Writer, singer, and political activist, Woody Guthrie is perhaps the single most important figure to have influenced the tradition of American folk music in our time. During his life, Guthrie wrote more than twelve hundred songs, including what has become the unofficial national anthem, "This Land Is Your Land," the rollicking "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You," and the moving "Pastures of Plenty."" "Wherever he was, Woody Guthrie surrounded himself with like-minded friends, artists, and show more performers. In California, he met actor Will Geer, singer Cisco Houston, and author John Steinbeck. In New York City he met Pete Seeger, Alan Lomax, and Huddie Ledbetter, and became a member of the politically active Almanac Singers. Despite moments of success, and fame, Guthrie never forgot his calling or his roots. In the same manner that Steinbeck's seminal The Grapes of Wrath and Walker Evans and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men emerged from, and later defined, the Great Depression, Woody Guthrie's music honored and heartened the abandoned, the lost, the dispossessed and disgruntled in an America darkened by poverty. His was the voice of Everyman." "Guthrie's life was particularly tumultuous. He was hounded by a bizarre series of fires, left motherless at a young age, tagged as a subversive by the FBI, and riddled in his later years with Huntington's disease. Yet through the breadth of his craft, and his dedication to and belief in the power of song, Guthrie left an indelible mark on the tradition not only of folk music but of music at large - and paved the way for some of the most influential singer-activists of our time, including Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Bruce Springsteen." "The first biographer to have full access to the Woody Guthrie Archives, Ed Cray has drawn from thousands of letters and interviewed over seventy people close to Guthrie to capture the spirit of a man too often misunderstood and too little celebrated."--BOOK JACKET. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I didn't know much about Woody Guthrie except the myth and a few bits and pieces that came out in Arlo's movie Alice's Restaurant. The story behind the myth is much more intriguing and downright tragic. Guthrie was the outrageous spirit who shocked the world into thinking about things they would rather ignore and who lived out his beliefs each day of his life. He ignored the niceties and lived close to the bone, hurting in some way almost everyone with whom he came into contact, including his three wives. At least twice in the book, Guthrie friends comment that people with great talent aren't necessarily great people.
One particularly intriguing point is made close to the end of the book. While Guthrie's family suffered hard times in the show more depression, his siblings went on to lead fairly prosperous middle class lives. Guthrie chose poverty, his restless nature making a settled life impossible.
Even after finishing the book, I'm not sure I know the real Guthrie. He was depicted as a slovenly, ill mannered man, unable to be monogamous, seemingly determined to annoy even those who loved him almost unconditionally. Something of a let down for me, I suppose, raised as I was on the myth, and yet there is another side to the story, a sense of something almost mystical about Woody who lived by his own lights and his own thoughts even while trying to find his way in the world. He was living what others were talking about, using his gifts to bring attention to injustice.
And, what a life he led! Part of the generation of writers and thinkers whose Communist sympathies were popular during the New Deal but came up against the McCarthy era red hunts. He seemed to be all over the country and then back again, riding the trains, making detours, writing and writing and writing. The words seemed to flow from him, the constant no matter where he was, from the woods of Topanga Canyon to the swamps of Beluthahatchee, he wrote...songs, poems, articles, memories, fiction, borrowing typewriter time from friends until he could afford his own. It was the words that kept him going, the words that told the story of not just Guthrie but of America. show less
One particularly intriguing point is made close to the end of the book. While Guthrie's family suffered hard times in the show more depression, his siblings went on to lead fairly prosperous middle class lives. Guthrie chose poverty, his restless nature making a settled life impossible.
Even after finishing the book, I'm not sure I know the real Guthrie. He was depicted as a slovenly, ill mannered man, unable to be monogamous, seemingly determined to annoy even those who loved him almost unconditionally. Something of a let down for me, I suppose, raised as I was on the myth, and yet there is another side to the story, a sense of something almost mystical about Woody who lived by his own lights and his own thoughts even while trying to find his way in the world. He was living what others were talking about, using his gifts to bring attention to injustice.
And, what a life he led! Part of the generation of writers and thinkers whose Communist sympathies were popular during the New Deal but came up against the McCarthy era red hunts. He seemed to be all over the country and then back again, riding the trains, making detours, writing and writing and writing. The words seemed to flow from him, the constant no matter where he was, from the woods of Topanga Canyon to the swamps of Beluthahatchee, he wrote...songs, poems, articles, memories, fiction, borrowing typewriter time from friends until he could afford his own. It was the words that kept him going, the words that told the story of not just Guthrie but of America. show less
Attempted Jan. 2023. Maybe if I was already familiar with more of his music I could get into it. But I just don't care for biographies, sorry.
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Author Information
18 Works 693 Members
Ed Cray is a profesor of journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California.
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
- Original publication date
- 2004
- People/Characters
- Woody Guthrie; Marjorie Guthrie; Moses Asch; Maxine Crissman; Gordon Friesen; Will Geer (show all 24); Anneke Van Kirk Guthrie; Arlo David Guthrie; Cathy Ann Guthrie; Charlie Edward Guthrie; Gwendolyn "Teeny" Guthrie; Jefferson Davis Guthrie; Mary Jennings Guthrie; Mary Josephine Guthrie; Nora Guthrie; Bess Lomax Hawes; Lee Hays; Cisco Houston; Matt Jennings; Lead Belly; Alan Lomax; Earl Robinson; Pete Seeger; John Steinbeck
- Important places
- Okemah, Oklahoma, USA
- Important events
- Great Depression; World War II
- Epigraph
- About all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine.
-- Woody Guthrie - Dedication
- This book is dedicated to
Emily and Tessa
by their grandfather - First words
- Foreword by Studs Terkel -- Woody Guthrie was, is, America's balladeer.
Introduction
Feathers from a Pillow
They were nervous. The advance sale had been slow, but then it always was for the hootenanies they had staged at Pythian Hall for the past four years. - Quotations
- "My name is woody adversity guthrie," he typed in December 1954 while a voluntary patient in Brooklyn State Hospital.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And the legend grew.
- Blurbers
- Guthrie, Nora; Terkel, Studs
Classifications
- Genres
- Music, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 782.42162 — Arts & recreation Music Vocal Music, Singing Secular forms of vocal music Songs General principles and musical forms Traditions of secular songs {genres} Folk songs
- LCC
- ML419 .G852 .C73 — Music Literature on music Literature on music History and criticism Biography
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 132
- Popularity
- 247,367
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.19)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 1
