Ramblin Man: Amazon.ca: Ed Cray: Books

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From Publishers Weekly

The biographer of Gen. George C. Marshall (General of the Army) turns his prodigious skills to view another complex American hero with an equally complex story-folk singer and political activist Woody Guthrie. Cray's access to thousands of pages from the Woody Guthrie Archives (including previously unpublished letters, diaries and journals) allows him to present a comprehensive picture, although sometimes the detail keeps Cray from moving the story along. However, this is the definitive biography of a songwriter whose legendary image for the past half-century has been "the banty, brilliant songwriter who had stood up for the underdog and downtrodden." Cray provides a superb look at Guthrie's background as a real estate agent's son. He carefully details how Guthrie moved from a fairly conventional career in country music to a recreation of his image through remarkable songs, like his "Dust Bowl Ballads,'' and gained a whole new Depression-era audience: "The Okies and Arkies, the Texicans and Jayhawkers, had become Woody's people." Cray also expertly observes how the "writerly discipline" of these works was missing in his post-WWII songs. While Guthrie's folk hero status is a given today, Cray shows just how much effort it actually took for a new generation of folk singers such as Bob Dylan to raise awareness of Guthrie's importance as the man himself fell victim to Huntington's disease. Finally, Cray fully explores one of the real heroes in this story, Guthrie's second wife, Marjorie, who stuck with the singer during and after their stormy marriage.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Although Woody Guthrie has been a favorite topic of children's books in recent years, there has not been a substantive adult biography written about him since Joe Klein's definitive Woody Guthrie (1980). Cray (Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren, 1997) may well supplant Klein, as he was given access to the Woody Guthrie Archives, which contain previously unpublished letters, diaries, and journals. Although his narrative is sometimes too thick with details, Cray eloquently sums up the Okie songwriter's sorrowful life, during which he endured his sister's and daughter's deaths by fire, his mother's committal to an insane asylum, and his own diagnosis and death from Huntington's disease. Cray is especially insightful on Guthrie's politics and his deep empathy for Depression-era migrant workers. A man of contradictions, the songwriter emerges as an intellectual who took pains to hide his intellect and as a crusader for social justice who neglected his own family. His second wife, Marjorie, takes on near-heroic stature as the caregiver who, though they were long divorced, looked after him during the last decade of his debilitating illness. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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First Sentence
THE LAND SLIPS EASTERLY from the High Plains and south from the Kansas line, toward the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, the softly eroded hills of this geologic red-bed country cut by pecan-lined creeks and shallow washes flowing into the Deep Fork and Canadian Rivers. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

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4.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written - Very Useful - A Good Read, Jun 26 2004

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Don Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ramblin Man (Hardcover)

Mr. Cray does a very nice job on this one indeed! Not only do we get a very well researched biography of a very interesting life, but we get a very good picture of the times he lived. We are now being flooded with works addressing the era of American History, rightfully so, and this work gives us another "slant," one we may find missing in other works. I must admit to being one of those who knew only one side of the Guthrie story, the musical, and was certainly ignorant of what made, what caused that wonderful music to exsist. It is good to be able to put the music and the man in proper prespective. I do think we have to take care and not be overly judgemental of Gutherie and his chosen life style. Most sucessful men and women in our history have certainly had their dark side. We have to be able to take the good with the bad and I feel this biography has done a wonderful job in pointing this out. I found the text to be easy on the eye, facts well presented and foot notes to be wonderful (almost as helpful and interesting as the book itself). I highly recommend.

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4.0 out of 5 stars No Home in This World Anymore, Jun 14 2004

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bensmomma "bensmomma" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ramblin Man (Hardcover)

Ed Cray's biography of Woody Guthrie gives us as complete a picture of the folk-song legend as we are ever likely to get; he had the cooperation of all surviving members of the Guthrie family and full access to Guthrie's personal papers. Cray also does a marvelous job giving us a sense of Guthrie's work, liberally sprinkling his text with lyrics from familiar and unfamiliar songs. The result is not only complete and comprehensive but very sympathetic, despite details (wandering, neglecting his children, womanizing, drinking, fighting, etc.) that bring Guthrie down a peg from the sainthood that some might want to give him.

Guthrie himself seems a knotty reflection of the troubled times in which his music first arose: the struggles of the working poor during the Great Depression, followed by the paranoia of McCarthyism in the late 40s and beyond. Both Guthrie and his music showed a kind of restless, kinetic energy until this second period set in, but then dissolve in a kind of undisciplined confusion.

We know now of course that this change in Guthrie was caused by his disease, Huntington's chorea, which hospitalized him for the last decade or more of his life. Cray does an exceptionally good job of showing the gradual increase of the disease from the point where its earlier symptoms just seemed like a quirky part of Guthrie's personality to the point where his internal fight against it made him violent, and finally to the point where he was rendered speechless and immobile. Guthrie's second wife Marjorie (Arlo's mother) comes off fairly saintly, visiting Guthrie with their kids weekly in the hospital for years even after their divorce.

In sum, the book is inspirational, informative, and poignant as well. The only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars is its length, which fans of Guthrie will not find daunting but which may be more than you are looking for it you are only a casual reader.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A 'you are there' feel to discussions of notable moments, Jun 4 2004

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ramblin Man (Hardcover)

The music of folk singer Woody Guthrie's works lives on in Ed Cray's Ramblin' Man: a biography which charts his coming of age, his many associations with influential musicians of the times, and his shows and stage presentations. Unlike other biographies, Ramblin' Man takes a personal approach and presents a 'you are there' feel to discussions of notable moments in Guthrie's life, offers from booking agents, and stage appearances. Ramblin Man reads with all the passion and drama of the novel but is a solid factual review of Woody Guthrie's inherently fascinating life and times.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
In his song "Christmas in Washington," Steve Earle issues a call for Woody Guthrie's return because our times require his unflinchingly honest and prophetic voice. Read more

Published on May 12 2004 by B. Viberg

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard Traveling
Ed Cray's Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie is a revealing and generally excellent overview of the wayward, troubled, and paradoxical life of 20th century... Read more

Published on April 26 2004 by J. E. Barnes