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Lot 297
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Woody Guthrie Lengthy, Flirtatious Handwritten Letter to Charlotte Strauss
Woody Guthrie Lengthy, Flirtatious Handwritten Letter to Charlotte Strauss
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Woody Guthrie
Scott Field, IL, November 3, 1945
Woody Guthrie Lengthy, Flirtatious Handwritten Letter to Charlotte Strauss
ALS

A very intimate handwritten eight-page letter written entirely in Woody Guthrie's cursive signed, "Pvt. Woody Guthrie / 42234634", November 3, 1945 to Charlotte Strauss, in response to a letter from her. 8p, front and verso of 4 8" x 10.5" lined notebook sheets, Single staple in upper left corner, folds and toning, else fine condition.

In this November 3rd letter, Guthrie's second in an often flirtatious correspondence with Strauss, he writes to thank her "for your unselfish and impersonal thoughts which both of your letters brought to me." As his biographer Joe Klein notes, it was a difficult time for Guthrie. Though "filled with hopes and plans for the future," his sense of isolation was eased only by letters such as this, and working on his music, "hoping to get in shape for his postwar career" (313). Here Guthrie asks Strauss to "tell me all about yourself… all of the things you ever hoped and tried to do, all of the things that caused your failures and your successes, and what you like in life… Tell me all that is in you. Tell me the deep, the treasure, your innermost. Tell me the centre, the core, and all that's in your sundowns, sunups, hazy mornings and foggy dews. Tell me all." Within a week, however, Guthrie unexpectedly received a two-week furlough. He raced back to New York to marry the woman with whom he'd been involved for many years, Marjorie Mazia, afterwards reporting to a base near Las Vegas, Nevada. There, as he would later confess to his wife, he would continue to battle his loneliness with "love letters to other women" (Klein, 317).

Guthrie's letter reads:

"Monday, Nov. 3, 1945
3505th A.A.F.B.U.,
Scott Field, Illinois
You didn't ramble on long enough, your handriting [sic] is big and travels fast, and that stationary you bought is really too little.
You made your feelings clear and I can guarantee you that all of your thoughts will be kept on the same level of wet clay and personal secrets. And none of them will I let anybody print.
But your little knack of quoting words of mine and others is one that could really be a lot of deep interest. I think I will go through your letter, Charlotte, and see what I can find to quote.
Before I commence my quoting, I want to tell you that 90% of your whole letter set up some pretty sad aches and pains in me, and it is just because you have worked so hard to live according to a whole science that seems to me to be just backwards. (all in good grace).
On page two, you tell me, ‘I remember thinking that I couldn't have bared my soul to people the way you did. I couldn't be strong enough…'
And then away on down the road and
Two [page number] over on Page Three (3) you tell me, ‘And I say to you now, my words to you—my deepest treasured, innermost thoughts must never be read by others. That would be sacrilege.'
(What a pretty world it would be if all of our thinkers, artists, doctors, teachers, scientists, farmers, workers, inventors and writers all lived in such a little shack, all locked and barred so heavy…..)
‘I simply can't help feeling that way. Perhaps I've let myself become embittered by failures—I don't know. But even thought I'm not soured on the human race, still, I'm somewhat curdled…….' .
(You've not failed one fourth as many times as I have, possibly you've not seen as many failures as I have. That sour feeling that you called ‘curdled' is only a big hill of new power wanting to be used.)
‘If my words mean as much as you say they do, I beg of you not to capitalize on them by letting even a word be published.'
(‘If these potatoes taste as good to the people who are hungry, I beg of you not to sell them nor to let them be distributed')…..
Three [page number] ‘But do it for your own peace of mind not for the benefit of others'
(Hmmmm.)
‘I'll write and explain and explain until I make you understand'.
(‘It is going to take a right smart of writing').
‘fifteen and going through the tortures of adolescensce' [sic …..)
‘which tortures?'….. (bombs?) (ask)…
Page Four
[citing Strauss' letter] ‘I really can't help being the way I am …..'
(You can) …
‘feeling the way I do about not wanting my letter published' …
(Keep going)
‘I grew up and found that I was that kind of a person and no matter how much I pretended to be this way or that, or kid myself that I could [‘could' crossed out] take things lightly down deep inside I know I'm not that way at all. Letting half-interested individuals and curiosity seekers see my secret thoughts would cut deeper than you'd ever know.'
Four [page number](‘No ounce of life is taken seriously till it is taken to the most people. And how would your [‘your' crossed out] people ever get to be all the way interested in you, unless they become 50% interested first? Maybe they are more than half interested, and more than seekers after curiosity. You are the seeker, too, curious as the rest of us, hunting the same upper place, feeling the world of the deepest most secret thought in all of us. You are a curiosity seeker, and the mind that is not curious, not seeking, is pretty sadly lost') (‘Oh, and a word about ‘my secret thoughts exposed'. What in this pasture of dusty planets could be your ‘secret thought' which for the people to see ‘exposed' would ‘cut deeper than I would ever know. No, lady, the ‘deep cut' comes from trying to keep too many lights turned down or too many oceans held back, too many workers idle, or too many thoughts in secret')
And on Page 5 –
[citing Strauss' letter] About the 1200 page manuscript, you say, ‘I weep for the injustice of it. I marvel at their insensibility. Good God, is it any wonder I'm bitter?'
Five [page number] (‘I repeat your thought here, it is a wonder that I am not tied up in knots. I refused the job of tying the knots, and I turned down several fine chances to be bitter. Oh, I get sore and smart up and down a road shoulder once in a while, but it leanes [sic out over that field of dry corn just about as fast as I can fan it up')
‘Does that mean that you truly realize what [‘what' crossed out] latent powers you do possess?'
(‘I hope so') (‘Going to try.')
Thank you for sending the Jim Tully piece about the armless vagabond. Yes, the piece was a little too dressed up.
I am sorry, Charlotte, to have to tell you that because I work most of my new pieces up out of my old papers it will not be possible to mail them to you to read. I would certainly like to have such an eye as yours go over every mark that I make. But, it would be like an artist mailing you all of his old paint tubes, you know how it is. I assure you that they are not kept in any ‘tomb' because my thoughts bust out of tombs lots
Six [page number] faster than my fears can build them.
‘But you thought of me as I like to be thought of—one conscious of the things around her, aware of people, and places, and smells and tastes and sounds, even as you are yourself.'
(‘I am not good enough at spilling ink to tell you what a fine compliment you paid me here in this one little paragraph. You are a feeling and passionate sort of soul that lets other more noisey [sic and popular souls take the reins and the lead too often, and your heart does hurt with the big hurt of a world that looks pretty bad all around you. This is not because you are too hurt nor too sensitive, but because you feel an extra pain in you which is a clear kind of knowing power that aches and burns in you because you have kept it in your secret place too long. And your next letters to me are going to have to be lots longer in order to make me understand more of what is boiling around in your heart. I want your next letter to be at least half again as long, twice and clear, and three times as deep.')
You say: (Regard to whom letter was aimed):
‘If you knew me better you'd understand that I would never decieve [sic] myself—or you—in that manner. You must not confuse
Seven [page number] me with others who are so mentally, mixed up that they go about hiding their true thoughts under all kinds of symbols or pretensions'.
(‘Well, here is the paragraph that I want you to use as your blueprint and plan to live by, to think and dream by, to speak by, and to write to me by').
‘That's why I can't stand the thought of others reading what was meant only for you to read'.
(‘You can sleep sound. Eat well. Run fast, jump high and come down easy. I hereby swear that nobody with a printing machine will be allowed to ever stand within 50 feet of your letters).
‘To tell others would be like committing a mortal sin'.
(‘Tell others what?')
And, no, I'll never tear it up, never burn it in the blazing fire, never forget it. I'll just keep it and read it over and over.
And now, hardest of all, I want to try to thank you for your unselfish and impersonal thoughts which both of your letters brought to me. And now, hardest of all, tell me all about yourself, your age, your work, all of your goings and comings, tell me all about your past trouble and
Eight [page number] worry, all of the things you ever hoped and tried to do, all of the things that caused your failures and your successes, and what you like in life and all of the scenery that you ever saw, all about your neighbors, their hopes and houses and jobs and salaries. Tell me all that is in you. Tell me the deep, the treasure, your innermost. Tell me the centre, the core, and all that's in your sundowns, sunups, hazy mornings and foggy dews. Tell me all. Open up the gates and let the words unjam, and open up the jam and watch the words float past. And this of course will sort of serve in its crippling way to tell you, yes, I want to get a Charlotte Strauss flood everytime [sic] I ask that mail clerk how empty my box is.
Yours,
Pvt. Woody Guthrie
42234634
3505th A.A.A.F.B.U.,
Scott Field, Illinois."

From the estate of Charlotte Strauss, whose revealing and often passionate correspondence with Guthrie began in 1945, intensified as he completed his tour with the Army, and continued over several years.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8" x 10.5"
  • Medium: ALS

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