Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie (Woodrow Wilson Guthrie), 1912-67, American folk singer, guitarist, and composer, b. Okemah, Okla. Having learned harmonica as a boy and guitar as an adolescent, Guthrie was an itinerant musician and laborer from the age of 13. He was always deeply involved in union and left-wing politics, and he wrote many of his over 1,000 published songs on themes of social injustice, poverty, and politics. A friend of Leadbelly , Pete Seeger , and Ramblin Jack Elliott, Guthrie exerted a strong influence on younger performers, notably Bob Dylan . His most famous song is probably "This Land Is Your Land."

Bibliography: See his autobiography, Bound for Glory (1943, rev. ed. 1968); biographies by J. Klein (1980) and E. Cray (2004); R. Shelton, ed., Born to Win (1965); H. Yurchenco and M. Guthrie, A Mighty Hard Road (1970).

Guthrie's son, Arlo Guthrie, 1947-, b. New York City, is also a folk singer and composer. He is best known for "Alice's Restaurant," a rambling, witty song that was the basis of a motion picture in which he starred (1969).

Guthrie, ‘Woody’ ( Woodrow Wilson) (1912–67) US folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His social-protest poetry captured the spirit of the Great Depression and championed workers' rights. His most famous tunes include “This Land Is Your Land” and “So Long, It's Been Good to Know You”.

Guthrie, Woody [Woodrow Wilson] (1912–67), song writer and folksinger. As a young man during the Great Depression, Guthrie, born in Oklahoma, rode freight trains with other hard‐up itinerant crop workers; using guitar and harmonica, he composed songs about the unraveling of the American dream (Pastures of Plenty) as well as songs of celebration and of mourning (The Good Reuben James, Plane Wreck at Los Gatos), union songs (Union Maid), songs of adversity (So Long, It's Been Good to Know Ya, Hard Travelin), even religion (This Train Is Bound for Glory), and his best‐known, This Land Is Your Land, which has from time to time been proposed as a new national anthem. Guthrie was paralyzed and speechless from the effects of Huntington's chorea when his songs peaked commercially in the 1960s. His autobiography is Bound for Glory (1943, revised edition, 1968). A collection of his poetry and prose pieces, Born to Win, was published in 1965.