Woody Guthrie: A Life
by Joe Klein
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joe KleinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-02-09
ISBN: 0385333854
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Delta
Book Reviews of Woody Guthrie: A Life
Book Review: Yesterday's "We Are One" Inaugural Concert brought this book to mind
Summary: 5 Stars
Joe Klein has always been one of my favorite writers. I read 'Woody Guthrie: A Life' shortly after its paperback publication in 1982. Klein was 34 at the time of its original hardback release. Klein entered the pantheon of writers with his brilliant roman ? clef, Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, in 1996. Now, he's thought of as a political writer and commentator, but 'A Life' reveals him as a biographer and researcher of the highest order.
Klein's seminal work on Guthrie's amazing and ultimately tragic life was the first thing that sprang to mind yesterday when I watched the "We Are One" Inaugural Concert. Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger and Seeger's grandson, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, belted out Guthrie's anthem, "This Land is Your Land." [And speaking of springing, how about Pete Seeger literally sprinting off stage at age 89!]
In his tours in the early 80s, Springsteen would take to referncing and quoting Klein's book on stage prior to performing a brilliant, stark rendition of "This Land." [His preamble with a reference to the book is captured in Springsteen's Live: 1975-85 (3CD).]
The writing here is unsurpassed in any biography I've read over the last 25 years.
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 SmithCountry & Folk Books
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