Folk singer, composer, writer and homegrown radical, Woody Guthrie became the self-appointed folk spokesman for the Dust Bowl migrants and agricultural workers during the Great Depression. His pro-labor/anti-capitalist stance attracted many radical and left-leaning liberals during the 1930s and 1940s, but his lasting fame came from his influence on the folk revival of the 1960s, especially on Bob Dylan. Best known for ballads such as "This Land is Your Land,"

Woody Guthrie

"This Train is Bound for Glory," and "Union Maid," Guthrie's music extended beyond the bounds of radical protest to become American folk classics.

Born in Okemah, Oklahoma, and named in honor of the presidential nominee, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie spent his childhood in several different households in various parts of Oklahoma and Texas. His mother suffered from Huntington's Chorea (the same disease that Guthrie himself later struggled with for 15 years before finally...