Pastures of Plenty: A Self-Portrait

Rating:
Summary: Words from the Wise
Review: This book is a sampling of letters, liners notes, and lyrics by Woody Guthrie. Most of the items have not been published before, or at least, not in this form. The writings come from the period 1936-1950, and are organized chronologically. Through Woody's words, we travel with him to Los Angeles, and then to New York. We spend World War II together with Woody in the Merchant Marines, and then get drafted in into the Army on VE Day. Following the War, we return to New York and join the People's Artists with Pete Seeger, providing music for union meetings across the country. Interspersed with the text are many black-and-white pictures of Woody and other folksingers of the times, such as Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, and Cisco Houston. The book also includes a smattering of sketches drawn by Woody in his journals.

The editors have done a masterful job at choosing items for inclusion. Several items describe Woody's approach to song writing, or analyze differences between performed and recorded music. Many explain his politics and background. Some are very personal pieces written for his children, in which we can see examples of the depth of his affection. Though he never had much formal schooling, Woody was addicted to writing, to expressing himself through writing, to exploring his ideas through writing, to communicating with others through writing. The editors comment that he was known to be a noisy houseguest, what with his habit of picking up the typewriter to start banging away at 3:00 AM. His writing style is his very much his own. In many places, it comes across as chain-of-thought, where he leaps from one topic to another. Yet, he still manages to bring his ideas back to his main topic in the end. The wild associations that he comes up with serve to emphasize and explicate his deepest thoughts. In a 1930s letter to his sister, he writes "Now, when you look around you, see how this battle is taking shape all around you, and how it's a fight between the rich folks and the poor folks every day. The question I want to ask you is this: What side are you on from Day to Day?...There always have been more rich than poor. Since this is True, the Rich folks must have someway of making us poor folks believe their way, so they put out radio programs, sermons, moving pictures, books, magazines, and all sorts of silly advertising." If Woody were still with us today, he'd have no lack of topics to write about.