{"id":45410,"date":"2026-01-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=45410"},"modified":"2026-01-08T14:38:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T21:38:59","slug":"woody-guthrie-jane-austen-and-virginia-woolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/woody-guthrie-jane-austen-and-virginia-woolf\/","title":{"rendered":"Woody Guthrie \/ Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HOW TRAGEDIES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION INFLUENCED SINGER WOODY GUTHRIE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads<\/em>
by Nick Hayes
Harry N. Abrams
16, 272 pages, 8.6 x 8.6 x 1.2 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A graphic novel of the life and early career of singer Woody Guthrie, Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads<\/em> is a sepia and dusty brown, linocut illustrated graphic novel. It begins with harrowing tales of his youth \u2013 his mother burning his father with coal oil, resulting in her being shipped off to the Hospital For The Insane, the collapse of his Pampa hometown as the plummeting price of wheat ruined the local and national economy, and Guthrie traveling roads and hopping trains during the Great Depression. His encounters with snake oil salesmen and carnival acts, hobos, and migrant workers, as well as his exposure to the music of Cajuns, Native Americans, Xit cowboys, and Appalachian folksong performances at barn dances ultimately inspire him to take up the fiddle and write original tunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with Woody\u2019s story, the book provides a powerful backstory on the environmental conditions of the Dust Bowl region, including the displacement of Native Americans through the push of white settlers on native lands, agriculture techniques that resulted in the tearing up of the bluestem grasses to plant wheat, an unprecedented drought, and the glut of wheat causing the exodus of settlers to California. This all brings to life the tragic unraveling of the fragile Dust Bowl ecosystem and brings about the hardscrabble lives and dust-blown landscape that Guthrie integrates into his music. Drifting through America with his guitar and knocking on doors begging for work, he reluctantly stumbles into an uncomfortable fame with a radio show, leading to national recognition. The book ends with the creation of his masterpiece, \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d, with the now-redacted communist lyrics included, which became America\u2019s unofficial National Anthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl Ballads<\/em> is a somber, bittersweet tale of the singer\/songwriter, and the harrowing tragedy of the Dust Bowl years. It\u2019s a weighty, handsome book. Lovely, broad-stroked illustrations bring to life the desperate struggle of 1930s midwestern America. \u2013 S. Deathrage<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LIBRARY OF LUMINARIES LAUNCHES THEIR BITESIZE BIO SERIES WITH JANE AUSTEN AND VIRGINIA WOOLF<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Jane Austen: An Illustrated Biography<\/em> and
Virginia Woolf: An Illustrated Biography<\/em>
by Zena Alkayat (author) and Nina Cosford (illustrator)
Chronicle
2016, 128 pages, 6.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virgina Woolf:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Jane Austen:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hand-written text, whimsical illustrations and lots of fun facts are combined into Library of Luminaries\u2019 new series of Illustrated Biographies. The series launches with small, foil-embossed hardcover books about two famous authors \u2013 Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf. (The series will release Coco Chanel and Frida Khalo in August.) This collection is an easy way to learn about the lives and careers of classic authors \u2013 it\u2019s like Cliff Notes for literature lovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through bits about family histories, friendships, inspirations, career highlights and low points, the reader gets a glimpse into Austen and Woolf\u2019s worlds. I knew some stuff about both authors\u2019 backgrounds, but wow! I still learned a lot! I had no idea that Austen only earned the meager sum of 140 British pounds in royalties for two years\u2019 worth of the sales for Sense and Sensibility<\/em>. And that once Austen\u2019s identity was made public, the Prince Regent contacted her directly because he was a huge fan of her books. She went on to dedicate Emma<\/em> to him. I also didn\u2019t know that Woolf loved dogs and had a pet marmoset named \u201cMitz,\u201d nor did I know that it took 15 years for the book The Voyage Out<\/em> to sell 2000 copies. We know these women had tragic lives, but they had joys too. I finished these books with a sigh. \u2013 Carole Rosner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Books That Belong On Paper<\/strong> first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair.<\/em> Sign up here<\/a> to get the issues a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Issue No. 100<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45430,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45410\/revisions\/45430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}