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Woody Guthrie: A Life Paperback – February 9, 1999

by Joe Klein (Author)

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A biography of the influential American folk singer, Woody Guthrie, who lived a life on the edge of tragedy but inspired a generation of songwriters, including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

Few artists have captured the American experience of their time as wholly as folk legend Woody Guthrie. Singer, songwriter, and political activist, Guthrie drew a lifetime of inspiration from his roots on the Oklahoma frontier in the years before the Great Depression. His music—scathingly funny songs and poignant folk ballads—made heard the unsung life of field hands, migrant workers, and union organizers, and showed it worthy of tribute. Though his career was tragically cut short by the onset of a degenerative disease that ravaged his mind and body, the legacy of his life and music had already made him an American cultural icon, and has resounded with every generation of musician and music lover since.

In this definitive biography, Joe Klein, nationally renowned journalist and author of the bestselling novel Primary Colors, creates an unforgettable portrait of a man as gifted, restless, and complicated as the American landscape he came from.

Praise for Woody Guthrie: A Life

“One of the finest treatments of an American 20th-century performer ever written . . . Not merely a biography . . . it is a social history . . . written knowledgeably, in a brilliant style.”—San Francisco Examiner

“A really great book.”—Bruce Springsteen

Print length

528 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Delta
Publication date

February 9, 1999
Dimensions

6.17 x 1.15 x 9.19 inches
ISBN-10

0385333854
ISBN-13

978-0385333856
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

Review

“One of the finest treatments of an American 20th-century performer ever written . . . Not merely a biography . . . it is a social history . . . written knowledgeably, in a brilliant style.”—San Francisco Examiner

“A really great book.”—Bruce Springsteen

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Delta; Reprint edition (February 9, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385333854
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385333856
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.57 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.17 x 1.15 x 9.19 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #118,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #50 in Folk & Traditional Music (Books)
- #95 in Music Reference (Books)
- #100 in Music Encyclopedias

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Mark T

Woody was unique, I’ll say that

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2021

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I wonder how many people, like I did, felt compelled to read this book because of Springsteen’s mentioning of it before singing This Land Is Your Land?
First of all, the author Joe Kline dove deep for information, to his credit. I’m a little unsettled with the fact that a man, Woody, can walk away from family during the worst of times, like no big deal, to satisfy his own whims. That did tell you how his mind worked. He didn’t think rationally most of the time and I couldn’t help but think…poetic genius? or lazy bum? Perhaps both. I do agree with Bruce, This Land is one of the greatest songs every written.

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Mr. Majestyk

lordy lordy lord, the tears did fall!

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2011

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I finished this book this past summer. Did anyone else who read this great book cry their eyes out during the last 60 or so pages??

I was getting my car fixed one day, waiting for the mechanics to finish, while reading this book in their lobby. Then I got to the part near the end where Klein describes Woody's stay in the hospital as he got sicker and sicker from Huntington's disease. The lobby was littered with folks waiting just like me and I read those passages, then my eyes started to swell and tear up. "Oh lord," I thought. "I'm gonna lose it."

I set the book down and quickly ran into the bathroom where I had a good private sob. I haven't cried like that in years. The last book that did it to me was Cormac McCarthy's "The Road."

Woody was such a blast to read about. Every time I picked up the book it was like hanging out with a friend. It was like, "hey I wonder what Woody's up to?" Then you pick up the book and find out. Quite a guy. Quite a life! A life full of high highs, and low lows. Highly recommended. There is a lot of humanity in this book. I'll probably pick it up again in the future when I want to visit my friend Woody once again.

20 people found this helpful

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MZ

The real thing

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2010

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One of the most touching stories I've ever read, this biography makes Woody Guthrie come alive as the fabulous, impossible, creative genius he was. In perfectly-tuned, lively prose, Klein covers Guthrie's amazing story, from his childhood in a temporarily well-to-do Southern family whose patriarch was smart and successful until he wasn't. The family fell into deep poverty, the mother succumbed to insanity and was confined to an insane asylum after years of erratic and dangerous behavior, and the children were left to fend for themselves.
Woody Guthrie hit the road as a teenager, and hardly ever settled down, anywhere, thereafter. He was the genuine article, a wandering minstrel chronicling his living experience of the Dust Bowl, the Depression and World War, and all the travails of that time in our nation's history. We see Guthrie's political awakening; and once awakened, he never looked back, never compromised his grass-roots principles, never sold out. How does a person stay that pure when there's money to be made from his talent and popularity, and his children are living in poverty? By being completely uninterested in money--Woody Guthrie seemed to view it as something evil--and by being unconcerned with the way other people see him.
The book is filled with sad and funny anecdotes about Guthrie's uncouth behavior and unwashed presence, causing dear friends and admirers (or their wives) to turn him out of their homes. He was clearly more at home *without* a home, riding the rails with hoboes, sleeping on people's couches, even enjoying the times (several) he spent in jail, where he felt right at home and made friends with inmates and guards alike. In one incident, when he was released just before Christmas, he was irate because he had promised to give a performance there and insisted on returning to sing for the inmates. Another telling anecdote: he was invited to dinner at a friend's home and insisted on eating his dinner standing at the kitchen sink. He just didn't conform to the norms of civilization, yet he seems to have had the most generous heart in the world.
Even when his catastrophic illness forced him to live most of the time in mental hospitals, his overriding interest was the plight of his fellow patients, whose disturbances he observed with compassion.
We read the story knowing all through what the outcome will be; and as the Huntington's chorea takes over more and more of his faculties, we grieve along with those who lived through it with him. A profound question, nicely articulated by the author, is how much of Woody Guthrie's art and lifestyle was shaped by the disease: "It was impossible to say where the disease left off and Woody began." Many of the symptoms coincide with Woody's own quirky rhyming and verbal cadences, his razor-sharp cleverness and silly excesses and uninhibited social behavior, his inability to stay in one place.
So as I was finishing the book, I looked up the music of Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, Leadbelly, and the other folk and blues artists whose stories are told here, and listening to them, I now recognize the difference between "authentic" and "commercial" folk music. It may be that the Kingston Trio and other groups popularized Guthrie's songs, but we wouldn't even know their names had they not had this material to work with. The original balladeers' music is funky, flawed (which adds to its charm), recorded with primitive equipment and often hard to make out, but it's exquisite. It's right there right then. Try listening to "Hobo's Lullaby" without being moved to tears. Or, listen to the music, then read the book, and then listen to the music again right afterward. You'll never hear it the same way again.
Woody Guthrie was complex but simple: kindly and compassionate, childlike and innocent, crude and crazy and bawdy, brilliant, uncivilized, pure, and completely fearless.

9 people found this helpful

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BbP

this land was made for you and me

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2009

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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.

14 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Chris4614

Great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2017

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A fascinating insight into this massively influential musician and early poet. Going right through the dustbowl days and how he came to be an early superstar. One of Bruce Springsteen favourite books and I can understand why. If you're interested in researching this period and genre of music it's a must read book.

4 people found this helpful

an engineer

The best biography I have read of any musician.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2017

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A brilliant book that was recommend to me by the boss,Bruce Springsteen.(in his own bio) This book is a case study in the evolution of modern music and particularly the development of ‘folk’. It subtle precise and very engaging. Better than Epstein’s bio of Dylan and miles better than the bosses own autobiography.

One person found this helpful

Mrs C M Rowley

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 31, 2017

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To be treasured.

One person found this helpful

Stu Morrison

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2016

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A super book packaged and delivered impeccably.
Many thanks.

One person found this helpful

Reed

must read if you are interested in Guthrie

Reviewed in France on July 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

An excellent biography

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