House of Earth (27 page)

Sometime in 1947, Guthrie sat down at his typewriter and found the right groove in which to compose
House of Earth
. We've done our best to edit the novel as we believe Woody would have wanted it done. We made a few cosmetic changes and spelling corrections, and some minor restructuring
of two paragraphs. We thought about annotating the novel, but decided it was better to let Woody's prose sing bravely without academic pretense.

Our partner in publishing
House of Earth
is the nonprofit Woody Guthrie Foundation, based in Mount Kisco, New York. All our proceeds from this book will go to the foundation. Never in our experience have we encountered an estate that functions with such loving professionalism. Nora Guthrie, a daughter, is director of the foundation and has spent a lifetime preserving and celebrating all things related to her father. She is a joy to work with. Her family must be smiling down on her from the great beyond.

Through Nora we got to know Tiffany Colannino (archivist) and Barry Ollman (Denver art collector). Both were tremendous to work with.

Two great Guthrie scholars proofread our introduction and Guthrie's novel: Guy Logsdon of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Professor Will Kaufman of the University of Central Lancashire, author of
Woody Guthrie, American Radical
. We thank Heather Johnson, director of the Northport (NY) Historical Society, who helped us better understand Guthrie's relationship with the Roosevelt administration. Robert Santelli, impresario of the Grammy Museum, shared his hard-earned knowledge of Guthrie with us around every bend. We also benefited mightily from Guthrie's two great biographers: Ed Cray and Joe Klein. Bob Dylan and Jeff Rosen offered us smart feedback after their initial read of the manuscript.

On the production front, special thanks to Virginia Northington of Austin, Texas, for diligently helping to prepare the manuscript for publication. At HarperCollins, we worked with Jonathan Burnham and Michael Signorelli. They were terrific. From the Infinitum Nihil world, special thanks to Christi Depp, Stephen Deuters, Joel Mandel, and Mike Rudell. The audiobook was recorded at both Tequila Mockingbird in Austin and Infinitum Nihil in Los Angeles (thanks, Shayna Brown).

When this novel was first discovered, we collaborated with Pamela Paul and Sam Tanenhaus of the
New York Times Book Review
. They edited our jointly written announcement about
House of Earth
, titled “This Land Was His Land,” to coincide almost exactly with the troubadour's one hundredth birthday. We couldn't have found a better outfit to collaborate with.

Douglas Brinkley and Johnny Depp

Albuquerque, New Mexico

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brower, Steven, and Nora Guthrie.
Woody Guthrie Artworks
. New York: Rizzoli, 2005.

Butler, Martin. V
oices of the Down and Out: The Dust Bowl Migration and the Great Depression in the Songs of Woody Guthrie
. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag, Winter 2007.

Cohen, Ronald.
Woody Guthrie: Writing America's Songs
. New York: Routledge, 2012.

Cray, Ed.
Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004.

Edgmon, Mary Jo Guthrie, and Guy Logsdon.
Woody's Road: Woody Guthrie's Letters Home, Drawings, Photos and Other Unburied Treasures
. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2012.

Garman, Bryan K.
A Race of Singers: Whitman's Working Class Hero from Guthrie to Springsteen
. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Guthrie, Nora.
My Name Is New York: Ramblin' Around Woody Guthrie's Town
. Brooklyn: powerHouse Books, 2012.

Guthrie, Woody.
American Folksong
, ed. Moses Asch. New York: Disc Company of America, 1947.

———.
Born to Win
, ed. Robert Shelton. New York: Macmillan, 1965.

———.
Bound for Glory
. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1943.

———.
Every 100 Years: The Woody Guthrie Songbook
, ed. Judy Bell, Anna Canoni, and Nora Guthrie. New York: Hal Leonard, 2012.

———.
Pastures of Plenty
, ed. Dave Marsh and Harold Leventhal. New York: HarperPerennial, 1990.

———.
Seeds of Man: An Experience Lived and Dreamed
. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1976.

———.
Woody Guthrie Folk Songs
, ed. Pete Seeger. New York: Ludlow Music, 1963.

———.
Woody Guthrie: Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Songs
, ed. Bill Murlin. Washington, DC: Department of Energy, 1988.

———.
Woody Guthrie Song Book
, ed. Harold Leventhal and Marjorie Guthrie. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1976.

———.
Woody Sez
, ed. Marjorie Guthrie, Harold Leventhal, Terry Sullivan, and Sheldon Patinkin. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1975.

Jackson, Mark Allan.
Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie
. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.

Kaufman, Will.
Woody Guthrie, American Radical
. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2011.

Klein, Joe.
Woody Guthrie: A Life
. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980.

Logsdon, Guy. “Woody Guthrie and His Oklahoma Hills.”
Mid-America Folklore
19 (Spring 1991): pp. 57–73.

———. “Woody Guthrie: A Biblio-Discography.” In
Hard Travelin': The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie
, ed. Robert Santelli and Emily Davidson. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for Wesleyan University Press, 1999, pp.181–243.

———. “Poet of the People.” In Woody Guthrie,
Woody Sez
, ed. Marjorie Guthrie, Harold Leventhal, Terry Sullivan, and Sheldon Patinkin. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1975, pp. xi–xviii.

Lomax, Alan, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger.
Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People
. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.

Longhi, Jim.
Woody, Cisco, and Me: With Woody Guthrie in the Merchant Marine
. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

Partridge, Elizabeth.
This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie
. New York: Viking Books, 2002.

Partington, John S., ed.
The Life, Music, and Thought of Woody Guthrie
. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2011.

Santelli, Robert.
This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Song
. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2012.

Santelli, Robert, and Emily Davidson, eds.
Hard Travelin': The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie
. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England for Wesleyan University Press, 1999.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

The Asch Recordings, 4 vols. Vol. 1,
This Land Is Your Land
; Vol. 2,
Muleskinner Blues
; Vol. 3,
Hard Travelin'
; Vol. 4,
Buffalo Skinners
. Smithsonian Folkways, 1999.

Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti
. Smithsonian Folkways, 1996.

The Columbia River Collection
. Rounder Records, 1987.

Dust Bowl Ballads
. Buddha Records, 2000.

Library of Congress Recordings
. Rounder Records, 1988.

The Live Wire Woody Guthrie
. Woody Guthrie Foundation, 2007.

Long Ways to Travel: The Unreleased Folkways Masters, 1944–1949
. Smithsonian Folkways, 1994.

The Martins and the Coys. The Alan Lomax Collection
. Rounder Records, 2000.

My Dusty Road
. Rounder Records, 2007.

Nursery Days
. Smithsonian Folkways, 1992.

Songs to Grow On for Mother and Child
. Smithsonian Folkways, 1991.

Struggle
. Smithsonian Folkways, 1990.

Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection
. Smithsonian Folkways, 2012.

Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs
. Smithsonian Folkways, 1989.

Billy Bragg and Wilco.
Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions
. Nonesuch Records, 2012.

Jonatha Brooke.
The Works
. Bad Dog Records, 2008.

Bob Childers, Jimmy LaFave, Joel Rafael, Slaid Cleaves, Eliza Gilkyson, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, Ellis Paul, Kevin Welch, Michael Fracasso,
Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway
. Music Road Records. 2008.

Jay Farrar, Yim Yames, Anders Parker, and Will Johnson.
New Multitudes
, Rounder Records, 2012.

The Klezmatics.
Wonder Wheel and Happy Joyous Hanukkah
. Jewish Music Group, 2006.

Joel Rafael.
The Songs of Woody Guthrie
. Inside Recordings. 2009.

Rob Wasserman and various artists.
Note of Hope
. 429 Records, 2011

Wenzel.
Ticky Tock
. Contrar Musik, 2003.

BIOGRAPHICAL TIME LINE