“IF YOU FIND ANY LOST PEOPLE IN HERE, I HOPE YOU CAN HELP FIND THEM”: RARE PRESENTATION FIRST EDITION OF BOUND FOR GLORY, WONDERFULLY INSCRIBED BY GUTHRIE WITHIN WEEKS OF PUBLICATION

GUTHRIE, Woody. Bound for Glory. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1943. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, in first-issue dust jacket, of the legendary folk singer’s autobiographical account of his Dust Bowl years, the first and only book he published in his lifetime, inscribed by him within weeks of publication and with a characteristically impish bit of rhyming, “To Ruth—Its the truth [sic]. If you find any lost people in here, I hope you can help find them. Woody Guthrie 4-3-43.”

“Woody Guthrie inspired a generation of folksingers in the 1950s and 1960s who used music to comment on their society and culture with the idea of changing it… Guthrie’s anger at the injustices of American society was combined with a strong and abiding patriotism that he expressed eloquently in “Pastures of Plenty”—if necessary he would defend this land ‘with my life’ because ‘these pastures of plenty must always be free” (ANB). In the New York Times, Orville Prescott wrote that Guthrie’s autobiographical Bound for Glory had “more triple-distilled essence of pure individual personality in it than any [book] in years” and critics further praised his book as “an eloquent piece, wild as a train whistle in the mountains, a scrumptious picture of fighting, carousing, singing, laughing migratory America” (Books of the Century, 135). First edition, illustrated with frontispiece portrait and Guthrie’s own sketches. With scarce first issue dust jacket. Guthrie’s wonderful inscription speaks to a friendly, personal relationship with the recipient, who may possibly be Ruth Henderson, wife of Woody’s cousin Jack Guthrie. Woody and Jack Guthrie performed together as “Oke and Woody” in Los Angeles in the 1930s and Ruth, who was also a singer, would occasionally join the act—her performance highlighted by a novelty routine in which Jack would snap cigarettes from Ruth’s mouth with a bullwhip.

Text fresh, some edge-wear, mild soiling, bit of rubbing to spine head, repaired abrasions to spine affecting several letters; some edge-wear, chipping to spine ends of colorful dust jacket affecting the first two letters of spine title. A very good copy of this American classic with an especially memorable inscription.