WOODY GUTHRIE
(1912 - 1967) American song writer and musician, considered the "Father of American Folk music", best known for his masterpiece, "This Land Is Your Land." Fine typed D.S., 4pp., 4to., New York City, [n.d. but circa 1946], in which Guthrie over the rights to his song "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard" to People's Songs, Inc. People's Songs was a label and organization formed by Pete Seeger in 1945 to distribute American folk music, and The Blinding of Isaac Woodard was a folk song written by Guthrie for his 1946 album The Great Dust Storm. Guthrie wrote "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard" as a response to the vicious 1945 beating of the just-discharged World War II veteran and African American Isaac Woodard by South Carolina police, an attack which left Woodard blind and sparked the Civil Rights movement. Guthrie later announced that he wrote the song because: "we'll need lots of songs like this one before we win our fight for racial equality in our big free United States...". The song is misspelled on the contract ["Woodwards"], and Guthrie signs twice. Toning, else very good.