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 42, Woody Guthrie was cruelly silenced by Huntingdon's disease. The first biographer to be granted access to the Woody Guthrie archive, Ed Cray has created a haunting portrait of an American who profoundly influenced Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American popular music itself.
