He was marked by the FBI as a subversive. He lived in fear of the fatal fires that stalked his family and of the mental illness that snared his mother. At forty-two, Woody Guthrie was cruelly silenced by Huntington’s disease. The first biographer to be granted access to the Woody Guthrie Archive, Ed Cray has created a haunting portrait of an American who profoundly influenced Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and American popular music itself. Includes a foreword by Studs Terkel.