Woody Guthrie: A Life

Woody Guthrie: A Life
by Joe Klein

Woody Guthrie: A Life
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Book Summary Information

Author: Joe Klein
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-02-09
ISBN: 0385333854
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Delta
Product features:

Book Reviews of Woody Guthrie: A Life

Book Review: this land was made for you and me
Summary: 5 Stars

Woody was born in Okemah, OK. 7/14/1912
As an adult he moved to Calif. and was horrified by
how the migrant Okies were treated in the fields. He
became a communist originally because of this.
Later he really started to believe in what they stood
for. I always thought Woody was a hobo and never
worked but that is not true.
He had a band, he drew cartoons, he had a radio
show and he wrote news paper articles. He was in
the merchant marines(2x) and the army. Woody
was such a simple person that some thought him
mentally slow at times.
He would marry 3 times and had 8 children but he
was never good at family life.
In his later years he knew that he was starting to
get the same disease that his mother had. It would
eventually kill him.
Was Woody a good man ?...Iam not sure....he
never took care of his loved ones and would
disappear from their lives for long periods of time.
Was he a musical genius...YES.
He became a folk hero at a time when he was to
sick to be able to enjoy it.
I must make a comment on the author--JOE KLEIN
....what a great job he did. This is a fine piece of
work. He can be proud.
Woody died 10/3/1967. I was 18yrs old then--I knew
who he was because of Bob Dylan & he was a proud
Okie.....Iam also a proud Okie.

Summary of Woody Guthrie: A Life

Before he became Anonymous, author of the political novel Primary Colors, Joe Klein wrote this intelligent biography of America's legendary folksinger-activist. Klein's first book may not have created the fuss that Primary Colors did, but it attracted the attention of no less a celebrity than Bruce Springsteen, who used to cite it with respect during concerts before singing Guthrie's most famous lyric, "This Land Is Your Land." Klein's unearthing of two politically radical verses usually omitted from that song is just one instance of the solid research underpinning his vivid narrative of Guthrie's often tragic life (1912-67). Before Woody turned 15, his sister died in a fire and his mother was committed to an Oklahoma insane asylum with a mysterious disease he later learned he inherited; Klein's chilling description of Huntington's chorea is one of the book's strong points. Its heart is a full rendering of Guthrie's restless wanderings across Depression-era America, which fired his lifelong radicalism, and a scrupulously unsentimental account of Woody's oft-sentimentalized personality. He may have been a genius and a staunch advocate of the common people, but Guthrie was also a bad husband, neglectful father, and difficult friend, as Klein shows. He pays Woody's life and music the tribute of assuming they need no sanitizing, and this biography is all the more interesting because of it. --Wendy Smith

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