Pastures of Plenty: A Self Portrait

The Unpublished WritingsEdited by Dave Marsh and Harold Leventhal "Woody is just Woody...He sings the songs of a people.  And I suspect that he is, in a way, that people...There is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings.  But there is something more important for those who will listen.  There is the will of a people to endure and fight against oppression.  I think we call this the American Spirit." - John Steinbeck In 1988, Dave Marsh, author and music critic, was invited by Harold Leventhal, Woody's agent, to peruse Woody's writings in the hopes of publishing a new book.  At that time, there was no "official" archives.   There were simply file drawers, boxes, scrapbooks, and portfolios each filled to the brim with Woody's writings, notebooks, diaries and correspondence. Dave wrote: "When Harold Leventhal asked if I'd be interested in editing what he called "the Woody Guthrie scrapbook,"' a collection of previously unpublished material, my r