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Woody Guthrie

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Woody Guthrie

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Auction Date:2014 Feb 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS, one page, lightly-lined, 8 x 10.25, June 7, 1946. Letter to Asch Studios regarding a folk festival called the Hoot. In part: “The Daily Worker is using artists from people’s Songs in a Hoot to raise money on the 29th of June, this month. Six artists will preeform [sic]. Cisco Houston, Charlotte Anthony, Sis Cunningham, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, plus a speaker. This Hoot will be held at 3200 Coney Island Avenue (corner of Brighton Beach Avenue), and if it is a hit (as I expect), then it is to be repeated over and over again, all over Brooklyn, after the same general pattern and fashion. (The only change is that I am the one who made the deal with the representatives of the Worker on this, and am running said Hoot to suit my own ideas.) You Ought to get your table of display set up there with lots of catalogs, lists, calendars, almanacs, handbills, pamphlets, time tables, bulletins, books, manuscripts, and plenty of material to sell as well as to give away for free. This is a strongly progressive district out in here with a strong majority always voting for Caccione and you can expect to be nicely received.” In very good condition, with old cellophane tape over signature, uniform toning, light red crayon marks to page, and a few edge small tears.

Founded on New Year’s Eve in 1945 by several of the Almanac Singers and other notable New York folk performers, including the elected president of the group, Pete Seeger, People’s Songs set out to ‘create, promote, and distribute songs of labor and the American people.’ In a fundraising effort for The Daily Worker—a New York paper published by the Communist Party, which had run nearly 200 pieces written by Guthrie in his column titled ‘Woody Sez’—several of the People’s Songs artists joined together to begin the Hoot folk festival. Noting that he is “running said Hoot to suit [his] own ideas,” Guthrie invites friend, fellow Daily Worker contributor, and founder of Asch (Folkways) Records, Moe Asch, to set up a table there with merchandise and music of his own. With reference to a notable organization of his contemporaries, along with the Communist publication that gave Guthrie a consistent non-musical outlet, this letter offers an excellent glimpse into the vibrant folk scene of 1940s New York—and a personal glimpse into Guthrie’s Mermaid Avenue apartment, with the endearing crayon scribbles most certainly done by one of the little Guthries as their father worked.