**This stamp is a part of the Legends of American Music series. Make sure to check out my hub page dedicated to this long-running and important project of the United States Postal Service.
There is no doubt that Woody Guthrie is one of the most important American musicians. His songs have become classics across generations of Americans. Guthrie was also an inspiration to a host of musicians across genres. In addition to his music, Guthrie also inspired other musicians to be politically active. Few American musicians are more deserving to be on a US postage stamp.
His Life
Guthrie was born in Oklahoma in July of 1912, the son of a businessman. Guthrie’s mother suffered from Huntington’s disease, which took her to an asylum when he was a child. This hereditary disease would eventually take Guthrie’s life as well as two of his daugthers.
As a child and teenager, Woody Guthrie was drawn to music and learned from friends of his parents. He picked up old English ballads, Scottish folk tunes, and African-American blues in Oklahoma. He began busking to make money, first in Oklahoma, and then later in Texas. At the age of 19 he married and within a few years had three children.
During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Guthrie joined thousands of other “Okies” who moved from Oklahoma and Texas to California. He left his wife and children behind in hopes of making a better life. Guthrie found success on the radio station KFVD here he performed hillbilly music and traditional folk songs. He also began writing and performing protest songs, for which he would later become famous.
By the second half of the decade his success had grown enough that he brought his family to California. He was also writing columns and essays espousing his leftist politics. This caused him to meet many of the political activists and even celebrities like John Steinbeck. While Guthrie never joined the Communist party, he often agreed with many of their goals. His political views caused him to lose his job at the station in 1939.
Growing Fame
Guthrie and his family returned to Oklahoma, but he soon moved to New York City to pursue more music opportunities. Although he would only live in New York for about a year, it was where he became friends with both Pete Seeger and Lead Belly. It was also in New York where he wrote his iconic “This Land Is Your Land” as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”
Guthrie moved back to the west coast in 1941, first to L.A., and then to Portland. Guthrie recorded songs, performed on the radio, and continued to write. After a few months, he decided to move back to New York without his family. He and his wife had a divorce in 1943. He would marry twice more.
Woody Guthrie wrote “peace songs” that Pete Seeger and the Almancas sang during the early years of World War II. After Hitler’s vision for domination became clear, Guthrie began writing anti-fascist songs. He was famous for appearing with a guitar that said “This Guitar Kills Fascists.”Guthrie was the most productive in the years after World War II, writing hundreds of songs and political articles. Yet, by the late 1940s, his health was deteriorating from Huntington’s disease. In 1956, Guthrie was hospitalized. He spent the rest of his life in institutions. Famously, even at the end of his life, one of the regular visitors to the hospital was a young Bob Dylan. Guthrie died in 1967.
The Stamp
Scott Number 3213
The Woody Guthrie postage stamp was a part of a group of four stamps featuring folk musicians. The other sings in the series were Josh White, Sonny Terry, and Lead Belly. The stamps were issued on June 26, 1998 and were a part of the larger series Legends of American Music. The design for the stamps was by the illustrator Bernard Fuchs.
Readers of this blog will know that I am not a fan of many of the designs. However, I think these are actually pretty attractive stamps. While still illustrations, the four folk musicians stamps are less “cartoony” than many of the other stamps. The color palette also feels a little muted and “dustier,” befitting the earthiness of folk music. Certainly, the four musicians that were featured were all worthy, especially as many of the other great musicians of the genre such as Peter Seeger and Bob Dylan were still alive at the time.
