A patriot and a political radical, Woody Guthrie captured the spirit of his times in his enduring songs. He was marked by the FBI as a subversive. He lived in fear of the fatal fires that stalked his family and of the mental illness that snared his mother. At forty-two, he was cruelly silenced by Huntington's disease. Ed Cray, the first biographer to be granted access to the Woody Guthrie Archive, has created a haunting portrait of an American who profoundly influenced Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American popular music itself.

About the Author
Ed Cray (1933-2019), "a meticulous craftsman of American biography" (Douglas Brinkley), was a professor at the University of Southern California. Born in 1912, Studs Terkel is the bestselling author of twelve books of oral history, including Working, Hard Times, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Good War" (all available from The New Press). He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Presidential National Humanities Medal and the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Reviews
"A welcome and important work." -- Robert Santelli - Rolling Stone
"Something about Woody Guthrie seems to attract interesting, unexpected biographers...But all these surprising Guthrie chroniclers have nothing on Ed Cray." -- David Kipen - San Francisco Chronicle
"Offers a much-needed corrective to the romanticized, too-familiar Guthrie." -- Eddie Dean - Bookforum
"The wonderful thing about Ed Cray's Ramblin' Man is that it puts aside the legend and the myth and gives us the man, without tearing him apart in the process." -- The Globe and Mail
"This biography resonates." -- Carlo Wolff - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"It's an amazing story, never less than well-told here, on occasion considerably more." -- St. Louis Post-Gazette


Awards
Winner of Oklahoma Book Award 2005 and ASCAP Deems Taylor Award 2005.



Book Information
ISBN 9780393327366
Author Ed Cray
Format Paperback
Page Count 512
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 418g
Dimensions(mm) 208mm * 142mm * 33mm