Woody Guthrie (Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Biography Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Joe Klein
- First Published: 1980
- Time of Work: 1890’s–1967
- Setting: Oklahoma, Texas, California, Oregon, Florida, and New York City
- Principal Characters: Woody Guthrie, Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, Will Geer, Pete Seeger, Gilbert “Cisco” Houston, Alan Lomax, Bob Dylan
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Social reform, Politics, Music or musicians, Protests or demonstrations, Depression, economic, Folk music or folk songs, Songs or songwriters, Entertaining or entertainers, Labor unions, Biography
- Locales: California, New York, NY, Florida, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas
Form and Content
In Woody Guthrie: A Life, Joe Klein paints a detailed portrait of Woodrow Wilson Guthrie and, in doing so, reveals the mid-twentieth century United States, especially the dust bowl of Depression-era Oklahoma and the burgeoning folk music scene of New York City in the 1940’s. Klein does this in twelve chapters, each covering a significant number of years in Guthrie’s life, from his childhood in Okemah, Oklahoma, to his last tragic years, dying of Huntington’s disease.
Klein examines Guthrie’s evolution as a songwriter and performer,...
[The entire page is 1339 words long]
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