New Woody Guthrie bio

[Ada M. Prill]

There's a new biography of Woody Guthrie out, written by Thelma Bray,
organizer of the annual "Pampa's Tribute to Woody Guthrie" in Pampa, Texas
(Woody's second home town).

Although Woody's Pampa years are the core of the book, Mrs. Bray also
includes plenty of other biographical information from other parts of
Woody's life. She interviewed many Guthrie relatives and people who knew
him in Pampa, and she has reproduced a letter written by Woody to his
newborn niece Mary Ann in 1937, lots of family photos, and other material
not previously seen. She also details efforts to establish a Woody Guthrie
Folk Music Center in the drug store in Pampa where Woody worked, gives a
map of Pampa and pictures of that city when Woody lived there. Also
messages from Mary Jennings Guthrie Boyle, Woody's first wife. And lots of
etcs. It's a book to browse rather than one to read cover-to-cover.

The book is a paperback, 8 1/2 x 11" and 170 pages. It sells for $20 a
copy plus $2 shipping and can be ordered from the author, who will
probably honor requests for autographs:

Mrs. Thelma Bray
1305 Hamilton Street
Pampa Texas 79065

I've never met Thelma Bray, but we've had quite a bit of correspondence
over the years (plus a few phone calls). She's a fine lady with a mission
- to get Woody recognised as the genius he was by his old home town. While
on this mission she accumulated a lot of information about Pampa's most
famous home boy, and this enjoyable book is the result. It's a lot faster
read than the Joe Klein biography, and it's worth the twenty bucks just
for the family photos.

Highly recommended - essential for students of Woody's life.

Ada

[Ada M. Prill]

I neglected to give the title of Thelma Bray's new book: It's
"Reflections: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie." But don't worry - if
you send her the 22 bucks, she'll know what book you want. ;)