Bound for Glory (Penguin Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Woody Guthrie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2004 | Series: Penguin Modern Classics

"Bound for Glory" is the autobiography of Woody Guthrie, the founder of modern American folk music. It is a funny, cynical, earthy and tragic account of his life in an Oklahoma oil-boom town, of the Depression that followed, and of his subsequent travels in, on, and under trains, in stolen cars and on his feet, round an America going rotten from the top downwards.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The original road novel--even though it takes the form of autobiography. If Guthrie didn't actually invent the footloose, no- strings-attached American hero (remember this guy Twain who wrote something about lighting out for the territory?), he certainly solidified the 20th-century version. Guitar slung over the shoulder as he sprinted to boost himself aboard freight trains, a man of the people equally at home with urban intellectuals, Guthrie incarnated for generations of Americans the artist as free spirit. This is the book that created the legend. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Woody Guthrie, the son of a cowboy, was born in 1912 in rural Oklahoma. When the Depression arrived, Woody hit the road and travlled round America. He became a folksinger, guitarist, merchant seaman, actor, artist and broadcaster. Woody Guthrie died in 1967 in Queen's, New York.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (June 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141187220
• ISBN-13: 978-0141187228
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,931,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bound for Glory, January 29, 2002

By 

Andreas C G "Andreas Carl Georgi" (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bound for Glory (Plume) (Paperback)

I read this book many years ago, and I easily recommend it to anyone. You don't have to be a fan of folk music (I'm not particularly), or ascribe to any particular ideology to ejoy it. Woody Guthrie is a very intelligent and insightful but writes in a straightforward plain English without any of the pretense of some of the Beat road stories.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Luck Kiddo, April 27, 2006

By 

Pearl Gates "Someday Maybe who Knows Baby" (NYC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bound for Glory (Paperback)

Essential reading for those that need a deeper understanding. There are many poetic passages, sad stories and a great reference to what America is like for those who were poor and often at odds with their country. This is a book that holds up so well today and will make you want more. Dylan probably brought you here in the first place. You won't be disappointed. Everybody should read this book.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars jumpin' and kickin' and swearin' of the American Imagination, June 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bound for Glory (Plume) (Paperback)

Bound for Glory expresses the heart of a man, a life and a people. Told in true storteller fashion, one which twists and turns language into something alive and personal, Woodie Guthrie recounts his life, from Oklahoma to all around this great big old country. And by the books end, you feel you've rambled the whole way with him and seen what he had. This is an American classic on par with the Autobiography of Mark Twain. No American history book or teacher or what have you can give you a tenth of what this book can---i.e., the ethos of the American people who suffered many trials and tribulations, depravations and hardship, and yet managed to still be beautiful. So forget your Beatnicks and your New England Transcendentialists, and pick up a book worthy of being called an example of the American Bardic Tradition. You most certainly won't be an inch disappointed.