Better lVorld A-Comin'

Woody Guthrie, Alan Lomax, and the Popular Front

DANIEL FRONTINO ELASH

In his book on the intentionally communist uptJringing ofArnerican youth. Paul Mishlerolscrved that’[fiolk songs became one of the most important mediums through which Communistsconnected their world to the traditions and cultureof the United States’ Ihis offers an importantkey to understanding the work ofWoody Guthrie, perhaps the best known of America’s folk singers.Woody Guthrie w’as widely known even in his own life for his dtist bowl ballads, his antifascism, andhis anthemie celebrations ofAmerica. It is perhaps easy to lose sight of the fact that Gtithrie alsoadvocated for causes that were and are not widely popular, and that he worked with others whoshared those values in order to do so. This insight offers narrative sense to what at first blush seemsto be an othenvisc-disappointing cache of letters exchanged between Guthrie and Alan Lomax, thefamotis American folklorist and musicologist who worked at the Library ofCongress’Archive ofAmerican k)lk Song in the I4os. in these letters. Guthrie clearly sought to somehow document hisown legacy. and the wider milieu ofwhieh he was such an important part. ‘lThis was Guthrie’s moreobvious intersection with L.omaz’s own efforts to collect and preserve American folk stories andsongs. I lowever, both Guthrie and Lomax were also actively sympathetic to the contemporarycultural theories of the Communist Party (CP. or the Parrv). iTherefore, the relevance of these twomen’s working relationship becomes clearest in the context of the CPs ‘Popular Front’ strategy ofthe late 1930S and early 1940s. Gtithrie and Lomax each sought to locate an indigenous cultural basisfor communist etilniral w’ork in America, and each found the other an ally in his own attempts to doso. Stich an understanding most clearly illuminates the Library of Congress’ collection ofGuthrie’sand Lomax’s correspondence.

Woody Guthric’s Communist Party was not ‘hat it once had been. In the early 193os, theC1 was in its Fhird Period,’ in w’hieh it called for a hard line maintained by a small Party ofideological ptlrists. Events both in America and elsewhere changed that otitlook, however, and bythe late 1930S the CP had changed both leadership and course.’ Earl Browder lcd the CP into aperiod of ideological tolerance and political cdx)peranvcness, called the Popular Front.’ The Partybecame much more willing to w’ork with other people and organizations, both despite ideologicaldifferences, and for shared goals stich as building the Congress of Industrial Organizations (ClO) orfighting the Nazis during World \Var II.

This change in line deeply affected the worldiew of cultural workers in and around theParty. In the Ubird Period,’ CP-atliliated musicians’ groups like the Composers Collective and the

Patil C. 1iishler, Raising Reds: The Voting Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps, and CommunistPoIiricaI Culture in the United Stares (New’ York: Columbia University Press, i9), 7.Robert Cherney, ‘Prelude to the Popular Front: The Communist Party in California, 1931-1935,” inAmerican (ommt,nisrI1isro’i No. I (zoo2), particularly pages 9-Il, offers a great deal of insight onthe 9Third Period’ CP. and the means by which it opened up to the world around it. so to speak, inadopting the Popular Front’ strategy against rising fascism, under the ideological leadership of theComintem and the American leadership of Earl Browder. Robert Cantwcll, It ‘hen tt’e II ère Good:The FolkSongReiiia!(Cambridge: I Ian’ard University Press. 1996), 88-94, discusses this as well,more specifically in terms of the impact it had on Communist and allied cultural workers, includinglolk musicians. See also Ronald 1). Cohen and Dave Sarntielson, Songs IörPolidcalAcdon: FolkMusic, J’opical Songs and rheAmerican Lefr(l Iambcrgcn, Germany: Bear Family Records. 1996),a and 12-13.3 Robbie Lieberman, ‘hieSongis Mv ll’eapon People Songs, American Communism, and thePolities otC’ulwrc, 195o-1956(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989) XVII-XIX, offers a deeperthan-ustial analysis that connects the CPUSA’s Popular Front-related theoretical work to Gramsci’stheories on the role of ctilttire in producing hegemony. Sec page 4 for the Poptilar Front as thezenith of the CPUSA’s influence, and 63-64 on Browder. See also Joe Klein, I Voodv Gtirhrie:A Life(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), 145-147, on Rrow’der’s leadership and the Popular Front; Cohenand Samuelson, Songs, a.

Ex POST FACTO

36 Daniel Frontino Elash

Pierre Degeyter Club had produced bombastic, classically-influenced “proletarian music” with littleregard for the music to which working people actually listened.4 These musicians consciouslyeschewed the old Wobbly tradition of taking folk, religious, and other popular songs. and modifyingthe lyrics for propaganda purposes.5 The advent of the “Popular Front” era deeply influenced thiscircle ofCommunist musician-intellectuals as well, and they changed their minds, turning toAmericas rich folk traditions and searching them for radical uses as they documented them, oftendrawing paychecks from New Deal programs to do so.6 Gttthrie shared these interests, whetherorganically or by influence, maintaining that “[amy song that points ottt something that is wrong,needs fixing, and shows you how to fix it—is the undying song of the working people.”7 Typicallypithy. Guthrie put the CP’s Popular Front-era cultural program into one sentence.

‘This is not to say that all folk enthusiasts were radicals. John Lomax was certainly not—he was a fomier banker with a love of cowboy songs. who managed to land the job of travelingaround and recording American folk artists for the Library ofCongress. John Lomax hired his sonAlan, who was a radical, as his assistant in this endeavor. Whatwas a satisfying pastime to his father.became for Man the search for a basis for his ideological beliefs in the traditions of the Americanpeople themselves.8 Furthermore, immigrants made up the bulk ofCP membership to that time, andpropaganda against the Party frequently contained assertions that the Party represented a “foreign”ideology and so was thus “un-American.’9 in this context, the CP sought a specifically Americanidiom in which to state their case, a task conducted by many kinds of cultural workers in and near theParty. Indeed, such concerns were at the heart of the party’s Popular Front strategy.°

Many of these Commtinist cultural workers believed that they had found such a livinglink between leftist ideology and American cultural traditions in the person and music ofWoody(3uthrie. Gtithrie was born and raised in Oklahoma and Texas, and had fled the Dust Bowl like somany other “Okie” refugees to California in the t93os. Unlike most of those refugees. however,Gttthrie sang catchy tunes in the local idiom. Some among Guthrie’s audiences found that his songscommunicated the thoughts and feelings of these”dust bowl refugees” artictilately and poignantly. InLos Angeles, meeting people like Will Geer, Guthrie discovered and embraced leftist ctilture as an

Richard A. Reuss with JoAnne C. Reuss, American FolkMusicandLeft-WingPolides, 1927-1957(Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000), 44-47, describes this milieu in some detail. Likewise Cohenand Samuelson, Songs, 2 and 12. Klein. A Litë, 145-147 treats this tvhole transformation in greatdetail. Sec also Liebemasn, 1Veapon, 28-29; Cannvell. Good 92-93.Lieberman, Weapon, 30-31; Cohen and Samuelson, Songs, 2.Lieberman, Weapon. 36-38. lie specifically maintains that the work of John and Alan Lomax wascentral to this change in thinking among Party musicians. See also R. Serge I)enisoff, GreatDayComing:folkMusieandrheAniei-icanLefr(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971), 70;Cantwcll, Good, 94 and 122-123; Cohen and Samuelson, Songs, 9 and 13.7Guthrie, Sez 137. Compare tl1at to Lieberman, Weapon. 31,39, on Party thinking on folk music—itis exactly the same idea.Kiein, A Life, 143-144. Sec also Ed Cray. Ranthlin’]iian: The Life and Times ofWoodvGuthjie(New York: W.W. Norton, 2004), 169. which describes both how this turned into a high-placed jobfor Alan Lomi’e, when his father retired, and the power to connect people with opportunities likerecording contracts and radio shows that Man Lomax’s position represented.Lieberman. Weapon, 39-40.Reuss with Reuss, Folk jlIt,sic, 133 offers a somewhat critical analysis of the relationship between

such concerns and Party ideology in 1939. They refer on page 189 to efforts “to btiild a contemporarysociopolitical statement on a nexus ofAmerican folk traditions.” See also Klein. A Life. 147-148,where he goes on to note that “the cttltural style of the Popular front... vimtally became the federalgovernments cultural policy in the late 19305.”

Ex POST FAcTo

Better World a-Comin’

external representation ofhis own worldview, and the left in turn embraced him.” For severalmonths and in a volunteercapacity, Guthric wrote a column titled lI’oodvSczfor the CI newspaperthe Dali’ lVorkc,: In it, he shared his thoughts on a variety of subjects, in a style that might even beconsidered avant-garde for its attempts to express vernacular idiom by means of irregular spellingand punctuation.” The Cl3 found Guthrie to be too independent for serious consideration as arecruitment and leadership-development target. I lowever, his column w’as popular and hissympathies clear, so the Popular Front-era CP was glad to open their pages to Guthrie’s writtenwork.3

Thus, when Guthrie moved from Los Angeles to New’ York in early 1940 at the invitationof\’ill Geer, he was not utterly unknown in New York’s leftist circles. Neither was Gtithric’sbrilliance as a folk singer necessarily apparent to his New’ York audiences, who had read his vorkbuthad never heard him pcrIbmt4 All that changed, by all accounts, at a benefit concert in March 1940that Geer produced and in which Guthrie performed.’5 Guthric’s talents as a showman, his ruralauthenticity, and his leftist sympathies were a relatively unique combination, at the time and in thatplace.5 lie grabbed the attention of all in attendance, including Alan Lornax, who at once saw inGuthrie a veritable horizon of potential.’7 Lomax promptly invited Gtithrie to Washington DC torecord for the Library ofCongress Archives.6 Also over the next several months, Lomax secured forGuthrie a series ofjobs, ranging from recording contracts to regular appearances on radio shows.9Guthrie’s time in New’ York gave him the chance to connect with, and mtitually influence, a wholemilicti of folk singers who were also leftist activists. As Guthrie’s close friend Pete Seeger put it,

Alan Lomax had said to Woody: ‘You arc a great ballad-maker. Do not letanything in this world stop you from being that. You’re the same kind ofperson who wrote the great ballads of the past...’ lie took Alan’s advice. Andwhy not? Alan was a very persuasive individtial. lie had the atithority of theLibrary of Congress behind him...

Richard A. Reuss, Woody Guthrie and Ills FolkTradition” in ?‘heJournalofArncdean folklore83 No. (Jul. — Sep. 1970), 278. See also Gtithrie, SeL 128-129 for example, where Guthrie relatespcrthrming for picket lines with Gccr and others.Retiss. ‘J)adirion, 292.

‘3 Cray, Ramblin Man, 171-172.‘8 Klein, A Life, 142, 149.‘5 Jeff Place. “W’oody Guthtic’s Recorded Legacy” in I lard Thn-ellin The Life and legaci’ofI ‘oodi’Gurhi’ie, eds. Robert Santelli and Emily Davidson (I Janover: University Press of New England,1999),.See also Liebemian, Weapon, 51; Klein, A Lik’, 141-142; Denisoff, L’onun 70, 8o-8i, Cray,

R:inihIin’lLin, 168.169; Cannvell, Good, Ho-nt.6 Cannvell, Good, 135.‘7 Klein, A Lite, 143; Cray, Ranthlin’Man, 170; Cantwell, Good, 112. Cannvell, Good, 377 locatesAlan Lonssx as the pivotal figtirc linking the growing interest in folk music and Popular Front-eraAmerican Communism; Cohen and Samutelson, Songs, 4, 7 and 13, agree w’ith Canvelfsassessment.8 Place, “Legacy” in hard iraveihn, 57; Klein, A Life, 150; Reuss, Thidmon, 283.‘9 Place, “Legacy” in hard ‘Jhi;’cllin 58; Cohen and Samtielson, Son8s, 14-16.“Pete Seegerwith Robert Santelli,i lobo’s Lullaby” in hard Trat’ellin TheLifcandLegiicvofWood;’ GothIc, eds. Robert Santelli and Emily Davidson (I lanover: University Press of NewEngland, 1999), 23-24.

Ex POST FACTO

38 Daniel Frontino Elash

Guthrie had a deep and la.sting impact on the leftist folk milieu, not least for his “dustbowl refugee” identity.’

Guthrie did not settle in New York in 1940, but instead roamed for at least several moreyears. lie was a merchant marine dotingWorld War II and went on to remarry a couple of times, lielater entered a long, slow descent into utter physical impotence, becoming a victim of theI luntingtons Chorea that had also claimed his mother. I lowever, Guthrie did not abandon hisbusiness interests in the course of his travels—indeed, his family was dependent on the income fromvarious recording contracts and book deals. Alan Lomax sometimes served as an agent for Guthrie’sinterests in these matters, often as a restilt of having connected Guthrie with the matter in whichLomax represented him.” l3oth men shared a passion for discovering and documenting authenticfolk cttlture. The’ w’ere friends as well, who shared a common tendancy tow’ards great cnrhtisiasrnfor all they did. MI this resulted in a w’ritten correspondence between Guthrie and Lomax. Lornaxdiligently filed these letters in the archives at the Library ofCongress, which has since preservedthem and made them available online,

This collection of letters may seem to be something ofa disappointment to those lookingfor fresh insighcs into Gtithric’s mtisic, life, or relationships with Lomax and others. In a sense, theydo not tell us much that we do not already know. On the other hand, it is easy to miss what theseletters do have to tell tis. because the core concern shared by both men and expressed in these lettersis now peripheral to American ec,lwre. The long Cold Var. followed by the collapse of SovietCommunism, has all btit bttried the memory of how much cultural influence American Communistsexerted for a few years in the late 19305 and early 194os. it is necessary to recall the social andideological commitments of those who dedicated themselves to the creation of an Americansocialism, in order to regain the frame of reference in which the Guthrie-Lomax correspondencespeaks most clearly.

Several mjor themes emerge from these letters.’3 First, they show Guthrie and Lomax’sshared desire to document and archivally preserve both Guthrie’s work in particular. and Americanfolk culture more generally. Second, these letters contain abtindant evidence that Lomax scetiredimportant, high’profilc employment for Guthrie on several occasions, and that Lornax acted assomething of an agent for Guthrie. Third, the correspondence shows that Guthrie in turn sentLornax his own material, and that Gtithrie acted as a collector ofmaterial for Lomax. Finally, thereare several major passages in which Guthrie exhibits what cotild be called “Popular Front”sensibilities. I us ruminations on what makes a good folk song, on the right use of his n3usie, on whatpeople said about him and his music, and on the way he addressed others, all point to the consciousrole Guthrie played in connecting his own communistic worldview with the way tvorking’classAmericans actually lived and thought.

Lon3ax and Guthrie established a system by which to archive Guthrie’s work at theLibrary ofCongress as early as July 194o. within about fotir months ofmeeting each other. Lomaxwrote to Guthrie that ‘[ajIl your letters are being filed for posterity... If you want to swap, Ill do so,carbons for first copies...” Letters exchanged between Lomax and his supervisor I larold Spivackedocument Lomax’s efforts to record Guthrie’s music for the Archives. Lomax wrote to Spivacke in

Lieberman, Weapon, 43 Klein, A Life, l42 Cohen and Sarnuelson, Songs. 6.“Reuss with Reuss, folk ilIusic, 183. describes Lomax’s extensive work to connect leftist singersincluding Gtithrie with high-profile. payingwork during WWII. See also Cray, Ramblin’ Man, I79183, 207-108. 255 for other examples of Lomax getting paving jobs for Guthrie.° Unless othenvise noted, all correspondence citations are from the Woody Guthrie l\ianuscriptCollection, Archive of Folk Culture. American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, \Vashington,D.C., at http://memory.loc.gov/arnmem/wavghtmVtvwghome.html. ‘11w specific URL to each lettercited will be provided with particular citations.° Alan Lomax to Woody Guthrie, 26 July 1940, http://memory.loc.gov/afc,/afcww’glo4o/000w.jpg.

Ex POST fAcTo

Better World a-Comm’39

1942, seeking authorization to expend money to obtain the items needed to actually produce thephysical recordings.’5 \Vhen Spivacke requested more information on the potential usefulness of suchan acquisition, I.omax assured him at length otthe importance ofGtithric’s mtIsic! Lomax wroteSpivacke that

“the continuing documentation of this most unusual ofAmerican balladmakers has a very great importance... the record of [Guthrie’s band, theAlmanac Singers’] experiments will have much historical signiticance.’7

Ic goes on to add that “the only records which have gone from the Archive to M is. Roosevelt at herspecial request were a group made for tis by Wood Guthrie and his singers.’5 I.omax alsocorresponded with both Spivackc and Guthrie in the cotirse of acquiring and microfilmingmanuscript books from Guthrie, which cantained both songs and background information onsongs.9 In the course of making these arrangements, LonvLx told Gtithrie that ‘someday, whenyou’re about ninety, we will put [those manuscripts] in a big glass ease upstairs, beside theConstitution, with two tall guards to prevent people from stealing them.’° Such were theirambitions, if somewhat playfully expressed. Guthrie, for his part, was grateful for such sen’iees,calling the song book made from his manuscripts “about the neatest thing that ever had my name on

Lomax also helped Guthrie obtain paid employment on several occasions, often work of ahigh-profile, public nature. For example, stich job offers included one from ‘the Du Pont programCavalcade ofAmerica,’ producing’a ballad telling about the life ofWild l3ill I lickock,” ajob Guthrieoffered to accept for $300.3’ The same letter describes a similar request “from Sanka Coffee’sprogram called We iThe People.”° Lomax also secured for (hithrie employment with the BonnevilleDam project of the Department of Interior. Guthrie and Lomax trusted each other enough that onat least some occasions, Lomax acted as Guthric’s agent in making arrangements with others for thetise or publication ofGuthrie’s works.5 Gcithrie in tom also sold some of his work to the Library of

‘3Alan Lomax to I larold Spivacke, 20 January1942,http://memoty.loc.gov/afc/afcwwg/o54l000lv.jpg.‘ Spivacke to Lomax, 22 January 1942. http://memoIy.loe.gov/afc/afe’,vwg!o5/ooolv.jpg.27 Lomax to Spivacke, 26 Jantiary 1942, http://memoly.loc.gov/afc/afewwg/o56/000lv.jpg.‘ Lomax to Spivacke, a6 January 1942, http://memory.loe.gov/afe/afcwwg/o56/000ivjpg.‘ Lomax to Spivacke, Undated, llrtp://memory.loe.gov/afc/afcwwg/o52/000iv.jpg; Alan Lomax toI larold Spivackc, Undated, http://memoiy.loe.gov/afe/afewwg./o5$/000w.jpg; Alan Lomax toWoody Guthric, 9 July 1942, l1ttp://memory.loe.gov/afc/afeww’o46/ooon’.jpg.Lomix to Guthrie, 7Augosr 1942, http://memoiy.loc.gov/afi.Vafeww’g/o47/000lv.jpg.

3’ Woody Guthrie to the Library of Congress, Undated,htrp://memory.loc.gov/afe/afcww’g/oio/oooiv.jpg.‘ Gtithrie to Lomax, 17 September 1940, http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcww’g/oo3/ooolv.jpg.NB.: Guthrie was notorious for his tinorthodox spelling and grammar. Stich idiosyncrasies wererelated to his effi)rts to capture vernacular speech in writing. All errors in quotes presented as foundin source materials.Guthrie to Ixunix, 17 September 1940, http://memoly.loe.gov/afc/afewwg/oo3/ooow.jpg.

31 Lomax to Gtithric, 2 December1941, http://memory.loe.gov/afc/afeww’g/o43/000lv.jpg; Lomax toGuthrie, 13 December 1941, http://memory.loe.gov/afe/afcwwg/o44/ooolv.jpg; Guithrie to Lomax.ca. December 1941, http://memory.loc.gov/afe/afesvwg/oti/oooiv.jpg.3 For example Alan Loma’ to Mrs. Abbot, ti September 1940.hrtp://memory.loc.gov/afc/afewwg/o33/ooolvjpg; Alan Lomax to Woody Guthrie. 21 Jantiary 1942,http://memoiy.loe.gov/afc/afcww’g/o45/0000jpg.

Ex POST FACTO

40Daniel Frontino Elash

Congress for publication, for example a performance of the song 9Thc Gypsy Davy.”35 Guthrie inturn attempted to be something of a field agent for Lomax, collecting his own and others’ material.37Guthrie even requested formal letters of introduction from Lomax on Library of Congressletterhead, to facilitate his efforts. Clearly, these two men trusted each other, worked well together,and undoubtedly shared common goals.

finally. among Guthrie and Lomax’s shared values, they held aspirations and a commonpolitical basis that reflected a con3mitment to the Communist Party’s Popular front theory andpractice. These values and commimienn show through qtlite clearly if only occasionally in theircorrespondence. For example. in September of 1940 Guthrie wrote a long letter to Lomax in tvhichhe went into some detail describing his own thinking on a variety of subjeen. Gttthrie explainedwhat makes a good folk song, observing that

one mistake some folks make in trying to write songs that will interest folks isto try to cover too much territory or to make it too much ofa sermon. A folksong otight to be pretty well satisfied just to tell the facn and let it go at that.39

Gcithric went on to describe the effective use of humor to present seriotis material in palatable form,also noting the importance of having a clear reason to write a song.4° lie describes howI hear so many people coming arotind me and going on about where you get your words and yourtunes. Well I get my words and nines offof the hungry folks and they get the credit for all I pause toscribble down.4

Guthric maintained that honesty was critical to the success of folk music’s socialmission.4 Guthrie felt that the radical truth of a folk song

is what’s wrong and how to fix it, or it could be whose htingry and where theirmouth is or whose out ofwork and where the job is or whose broke and wherethe money is or whose carrying a grin and where the peace is—that’s folk loreand folks made it tip because they seen that the politicians couldn’t findnothing to fix or nobody to feed or give ajob ofwork. We don’t aim to hurtyou or scare you w’hcn we get to a feeling sorto folksey and make up some folklore, we’re a doing all we can to make it easy on you.43

This quote in particular makes qtute clear the programmatic nantre ofGuthde’s work, in his ownwords and quite in keeping with other Communist musicians’ contemporary ideis. Guthrie ss’asplayfully demonstrative of this characterization of his relationships, addressing a letter to his fellow

Lomax to Guthrie, 21 January 1942, http://memory.loc.gov/afq7afcwwgIo4./oooiv.jpg; Statementof Permission from Woody Guthrie to the Library ofCongress, 9 March 1942,http://mcmory.loc.gov/af/afcwwg/ot9/ooo1v.jpg Statement of Permission from Woody Guthrie tothe Library ofCongress, 2 October 1942, http://memory.loc.gov/af’afcwwg/oi8/oooiv.jpg.For example, see Guthrie to Lornix, ca. November 1940,

http://memory.loc.gov/af/afcwwg/o38/oooIv.jpg; Guthrie to Lomax, 7 June 1942,http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcwwg/o12/ooow.jpg.38 Guthrie to L.omax, i February 1941. http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcwwgloo7/000w.jpg.Guthrie to Lomax, 19 September 1940, http://mernory.loc.gov/afc/afewwg/oo4joootv.jpg.

4° Guthrie to Lomax, 19 September 1940, http://memory.loe.gov/afcVafewwg/oo4/000av,jpg.4 Guthrie to Lornax. 19 September 1940, http://memory.loe.gov/af’afewwgIoo4/ooo3v.jpg.‘ Guthrie to Lomax, 25 September 1940, http://memory.loc.gov/af1afewwg/o36/oooIv.jpg.43Guthtie to Lomax, 19 September 1940, http://mcmory.loc.gov/afq/afewwg/oo4/0007v.jpg andooo8v.jpg. Again, all spelling as it appears in the original document.

EX POST FACTO

Better World a-Comin’

musicians in the Almanac Singers to Comrades, Commandos, and Fellow’ Workers, Technicians,United Enginc’crs... Factors’ workers, miners, railroaders, Peasants. Sharecroppers and UnionLaborl hold ‘use FortF This is not to characterize Guthrie’s view’s as merck’ theoretical orassumed. Ileonce wrote to Lomax that he hopcdcvcrybody’s backof me and I larry l3ridgcs andJoe Curran and Franklin D., in this fight to plosv I hitler tinder.”45 his audiences ranged from “PeaceRallies, Womens Teas, Union Meetings and so forth”6 to Mrs. Roosevelt and her staff, again withhelp from Lomax.° Lomax once tirgcd Guthric to

hurry and change your [band’s] name, and for heavens sake make it a goodold countrified name... Your chief point of contact in America is that of thebackground of the American soil and American IbIk songs. Don’t become‘I leadline Singers,’ even though you max’ be singing the headlines.5

Of course, such iews were controversial, and Guthrie’s career as a Poptilar Front-influenced cultural worker did not pass without controversy. For example, he wrote to Lomaxcomplaining of htw a positive review of one of his shows which had appeared in the New York Sun,drew a widespread negative response. Gtithrie complained that

lots of people wrote in hollering that the reporter fell for a lot of fifth colum[n]stuff. They called me a communist and a wild man and everything you couldthink of but I don’t care what they call me I’ve always know’ed this ‘as whatI w’anted to talk and sing about and I’m used to running into folks thatcomplain buti don’t ever intend to sell out or quit or talk or sing any differentbecause when I do that drug store lemonade stuff I just open my mouth andnothing comes out.49

Despite such views, how’ever, Guthrie did not see his opinions as anti-American. Rather, hemaintained that [i]f I thought for two minutes that anything I do or say would hurt America and thepeople in in would keep my face shut and catch the first freight out of the country.”?

In other words, these letters speak plainly of Lomaxand Guthrie’s shared efforts to buildan American cultural basis for the development of an American socialism. Indeed, it is an objectiveboth men shared with many of their peers, a goal embraced and cultivated by an AmericanCommunist Party that was more open to the world than it ever had been or perhaps ever would beagain. These topics are frequently reduced in scholarship to the issue ofwhether Guthrie had everformally joined the Pai-t’, or to broader but still somew’hat two-dimensional concerns like tracing theminutiae of the are of Guthric’s and Lomax’s careers. Such histories belie what each of those menwould have undoubtedly seen as the full scope and implications of their relationship, their careers,

(Juthde to Almanac Singers, 19 June 1942, http://memolv.loe.gov/afc/afcww’g/om4J000w.jpg.° Guthrie to Lomax, 7 Jtine 1942, http://memon’.loc.gov/afe/afew’wg/oia,/oooiv.jpg.46 Gtithrie to Lornax, Ca. April 941, http://memory.loc.gov/afe/atëwwg/oo9/000rv.jpg.7 Alan Lomax to \Voody Guthrie, am January 1942,http://memory.loc.gov/afe/afcwwgIo45/oooivjpg.45 Alan t.omax to \Voody Outhrie, 21 January 1942,http://memory.loc.govfafe/afewwglo45/000w.jpg,Guthrie to I,ornax, 19 September1940, http://memory.loe.gov/af/afewvg/oo4/ooo5v,jpg and

oooóv.jpg.5 Guthrie to I.omax. 19 September 1940, http://memory.loe.gov/afe,/afcwwg/ooJooo7v.jpg.

Ex POST FACTO

42 Daniel Frontino Elash

and perhaps of their very lives. There was, after all. “a better word a-comin’.” and our buddies \Voodvand Alan aimed to tell us “why. why, why.”5’

The title and last line of this paper is from or refers to the song Better WorldA-Cornin’ by WoodyGuthric.The photo is from the Library ofCongress’ “American Memory” website, and may be found athttp://mcmory.loc.gov/amrnenVwwghtml/wwgtimeline.htnil.

‘ See Notes at end ofpaper.

fx PosT FACTO