Two Books Worth Reading

Photo courtesy http://pdphoto.org/   Thanks, Jon!

BOUND FOR GLORY by Woody Guthrie  ©1943

and

THIS LAND WAS MADE FOR YOU AND ME by Elizabeth Partridge  ©2002

I’m so glad I read these two great books together. Woody’s autobiography was raw and immediate. I felt like I was sitting in the same room (or boxcar or migrant’s tent) with him, listening to him drawl out his long, lonesome story; listening to him play his guitar while telling a tragic story in song. Partridge’s biography of Woody patches up the holes, explains some of the mystery of the man, and continues on with the rest of the story.

Woody wrote his autobiography in the early 1940’s. It’s mostly about his childhood and a series of unfortunate events that left him destitute and homeless as a young man. But he did a lot of living in the years since, up until his death in 1967. Partridge’s book features lots of great photos and brings closure to Woody’s life story.

Bob Dylan said it [Bound for Glory] left more of an impression on him than Kerouac's On The Road.  I have to agree 100%. While similar (talented ramblin’ men who found it hard to settle down), Kerouac’s Beat Generation represented the hedonism of self-indulgence, while Woody’s story showed a deep concern for the poor and oppressed of the Great Depression/Dust Bowl Days.

Woody rattled around the country, carrying his paint brushes in case he could paint or repaint a sign here or there for a meal. He  carried his guitar and made end meets on the tips he got for singing anywhere he could. He  traveled as a hobo by boxcar, hitch-hiked, and did a lot of walking. He was always looking for “a job of work,” which in those days was hard to find. He was fortunate to be able to get by doing the things he loved: writing & singing songs, painting, and writing.

At first I was a bit peeved with the biography, because the author told of his childhood as if she were copying it from Woody’s book.  But then I noticed that Woody’s version left out some important details: like the true cause of his mother ending up in an insane asylum. I excused this because he was just a boy and perhaps had repressed the sad memories.  But when he never mentioned in his autobiography his first wife, Mary, and his three small children he abandoned when he took to rambling (which came out in the biography), I downgraded his book from 5 stars to 4 for covering up aspects of his life that he apparently was too ashamed to deal with.

The cover photo of Bound for Glory features a photo of Woody looking achingly sad and lonely. Reading either book shows that he had a hard life fraught with too many heartbreaking tragedies for one person to bear. Both books give an insider’s look at what life during the Great Depression was like, and I can recommend them as a portrait of a difficult time in our nation’s history and of a flawed, but great musician who lived and sang about those tumultuous years.