AMERICAN FOLKSONG; “To The Woman I Found And I Lost And Still Love And Always Will.…”
[New York]: [DISC Co. of America], [1947]. First Edition. Softcover. Stiff blue illustrated wrappers, staple-bound as issued (7-1/2" x 10"); 48 pages; housed in a blue morocco-backed cloth clamshell box with chemise. First edition of "the most extensive piece of Guthrie’s writing actually to see print in the postwar years" (Joe Klein: WOODY GUTHRIE. A LIFE, page 345), this rare and extraordinary ASSOCIATION COPY INSCRIBED in the year of publication, with brilliant red brushstrokes in Guthrie’s hand on the front wrapper, traced across the printed text, and in the huge bold painted INSCRIPTION to an intimate friend and correspondent across the entire pastedown and endpaper: "To the woman/I found/and I lost/Charlotte/Strauss/and still love/and always will/all of my days/and nights/too,/Woody/Guthrie/1947," and continued on the rear pastedown in verse stanza: "You might think/Several thoughts about me/all of which/would be wrong/I loved the sound/of your voice/on my fone [sic]/wg [circled]/May 28, 1947." This rare presentation copy of AMERICAN FOLKSONG, INSCRIBED by Guthrie only three months after the tragic death of his daughter Cathy, was published at a time when he struggled to find refuge from his grief. In 1946 Guthrie had “spent days typing hundreds of pages of his wartime essays and songs.… Some would later appear with songs Guthrie wrote in the years before and after the war in [this] slender collection underwritten by Asch’s DISC Records” (Cray: RAMBLIN' MAN. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WOODY GUTHRIE, page 306). This exceptional volume contains not only an autobiographical essay but also evokes Guthrie’s turmoil in the vivid red brushstrokes of his inscription that are also traced on the book’s cover and within. During this period, “as if to emphasize his written comments…. Guthrie took to slashing purple watercolor brush strokes down his typewritten pages… announcing, Woody Guthrie was here, alive, still alive” (Cray, page 316). Containing lyrics to 28 songs, led by “Stackabones Own Song” that recalls his pet name for Cathy, and classics such as “Tom Joad,” together with Guthrie’s autobiographical essay “My Life,” tributes to Leadbelly and others, numerous illustrations by Guthrie, and his closing note: “Let me be known as just the man that told you something you already knew” (NEW GROVE, Volume 7, page 856). An extraordinary presentation copy of this classic American work. Text block cleanly detached from covers which are reinforced with a strip of blue cloth tape at the spine. Very Good in a Fine clamshell box. Item #022513
Price: $17,500.00