Ambellan, Elizabeth and Harold
     (see also Correspondence-3, Box 1, Folder 10.1)

1956

Columbia Recording Company
     Common Ground (see Anderson, Margaret)
     Ditsler, Marian (see Asch, Moe)

Mazia, Marjorie
     [Correspondence-4 contains Mazia postcards, 1942-52]

Note: Additional outgoing correspondence may be found in Incoming Correspondence, Box 5 (correspondence related to death of Cathy Guthrie, and correspondence from Almanac Singers papers.)

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BOX 3

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Correspondence-3: Other Correspondence

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Correspondence-4: Postcards
Digitization of these Postcards provided by a 2010 grant from the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

Woody Guthrie Archives - Accessions 2008-242: Charlotte Strauss Collection 

Collection Guide - The Charlotte Strauss Collection

The Charlotte Strauss Collection, held at the Woody Guthrie Archives, consists of approximately 124 pages of material (17 items), including Personal and Professional Correspondence, Manuscripts, commercially available Publications, and Ephemera, sent by Woody Guthrie to Charlotte Strauss during the period spanning October 29 th , 1945 to October 3 rd , 1947. The materials held by the Woody Guthrie Archives are reproductions from the original items, which are held in a private collection.

Charlotte Strauss, who lived with her family in Bristol, Pennsylvania, and worked in their family-run shop, contacted Woody Guthrie by mail after having read his novel Bound For Glory (E.P. Dutton, 1942). As Guthrie was enlisted as a Private in the US Armed Forces at the time, his wife, Marjorie Mazia, who was living in Coney Island, New York, forwarded Strauss' letter to Guthrie at the Scott Field Air Force Base in Illinois. Guthrie being his first letter to Strauss noting:

"Your letter about my book "(Bound For Glory)" got down here today. Marjorie read it at home and then mailed it on. I don't know exactly where to start nor how. But have got to start somewhere. Your letter gets me to feel just like my book made you feel. You turned your whole self so free in your letter that you gave me the same old feeling I had as I took every one of the steps in the book." [Accessions 2008-242.1]

This opening passage demonstrates that although the Charlotte Strauss Collection does not include any of Strauss' letters to Guthrie, many of the topics and emotions contained in Strauss' letters can be inferred through Guthrie's replies, as he comments richly on ideas brought up by Strauss in her letters.

The Charlotte Strauss Collection is a part of the Woody Guthrie Archives, and is available for in-house consultation by Researchers. To schedule a Research Appointment to view this, or other materials held by the Archives, please complete our online Researcher Application at: http://woodyguthrie.org/archives/researchrequestform.htm.

Organization
The Collection is arranged into the following series: Correspondence, Manuscripts, Publications, and Ephemera.

CORRESPONDENCE

Item #3: 2008-242.3
Woody Guthrie to Charlotte Strauss. 3021st Army Air Force Base Unit, Los Vegas, Nevada: December 6 th , 1945. Handwritten, 5 pages.

Of particular note : In an addendum to this letter, in which Guthrie informs Strauss that he is getting discharged and that she should continue writing to him at his address in Coney Island, New York, Guthrie describes how he met his wife, Marjorie Mazia, in 1941 or 1942, and how he sung and toured with Martha Graham and Sophie Maslow. He invites Strauss to visit him at his home in Coney Island, and to accompany him to the Martha Graham Studio or to the New Dance Group Studio. In this letter Guthrie also mentions the Library of Congress Archives of American Folksong recordings, and the Struggle album upon which Guthrie appears, put out by Moses Asch.

Item #4: 2008-242.4
Woody Guthrie to Charlotte Strauss. 3021st Army Air Force Base Unit, Los Vegas, Nevada: December 8 th , 1945. Handwritten, 4 pages.

Of particular note : This four-page letter is written in a variety of rhyming schemes, an unusual style for Guthrie.

Item #5: 2008-242.5
Woody Guthrie to Charlotte Strauss. 3021st Army Air Force Base Unit, Los Vegas, Nevada: December 8 th , 1945. Handwritten, 10 pages.

Of particular note: First eight pages consist of a poem by Guthrie about poetry.

Item #7: 2008-242.7
Woody Guthrie to Charlotte Strauss. 3021st Army Air Force Base Unit, Los Vegas, Nevada: December 15 h , 1945. Handwritten, 18 pages.

Of particular note: Topics in this letter include Guthrie's half-uncle, who was suing E.P. Dutton (publisher's of Bound For Glory ) for $50,000, claiming that he did not kill a family of kittens; "Shirley," a new babysitter whom Guthrie had hired to watch Cathy (his daughter b.1943); Marjorie Mazia, Guthrie's wife, and her health, her family (specifically her mother, Yiddish poet Eliza Greenblatt); and Mazia's reaction to Guthrie's interest in Strauss; and Guthrie's fear of venereal disease.

Item #8: 2008-242.8
Woody Guthrie to Charlotte Strauss. 3021st Army Air Force Base Unit, Los Vegas, Nevada: December 21 st , 1945. Handwritten, 5 pages.

Of particular note: Discusses every day life and occurrences on the Air Force Base.

Item #9: 2008-242.9
Woody Guthrie to Charlotte Strauss. 3547 Mermaid Avenue , Brooklyn , 24, New York : January 2 nd , 1946 . Handwritten, 1 page.

Of particular note: Inscription for Strauss to paste into record album jacket that Guthrie sent her.

Item #10: 2008-242.10
Woody Guthrie to Charlotte Strauss. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : October 8 th , 1946. Handwritten, 8 pages.

Of particular note: Includes three pages of prose and pen sketches.

Item #11a: 2008-242.11.1
Irving Learner (sic) to Woody Guthrie. Burbank, California : September 21 st , 1947. Typed, 1 page.

Of particular note: Letter from Lerner to Guthrie regarding possible film treatment of Guthrie's short story Study Butte . Specifically, Lerner mentions interest in the story from Lewis Milestone and his assistant Norman Lloyd, who sought additional information about the motivation of the characters in the story. Lerner notes: ". it will be necessary for you to elaborate on the reason why Woody acts like he does." Lerner mentions possibility of Eddie Albert playing the lead in the film, and of sending Faith Elliott to New York City to discuss treatment with Guthrie. Lerner notes that he has registered the story with the Screen Writers Guild.

*The Woody Guthrie Archives holds additional material that may be of interest. See "Related Materials" section below.

Item #11b: 2008-242.11.2
Irving Learner (sic) to Woody Guthrie . Burbank, California : September 21 st , 1947. Typed, 1 Page.

Of particular note: Additional questions regarding possible film treatment of Guthrie's short story Study Butte .

*The Woody Guthrie Archives holds additional material that may be of interest. See "Related Materials" section below.

Item #12a: 2008-242.12.1
Guthrie, Woody. I Spin, You Spin. Delaware Water Gap : September 15th, 1946. Handwritten, 6 pages.

Of particular note: Short story written by Guthrie in the Pocono Mountains.
*The Woody Guthrie Archives holds additional material that may be of interest. See "Related Materials" section below.

Item #12b: 2008-242.12.2
Guthrie, Woody. I Spin, You Spin. Delaware Water Gap : September 15th, 1946. Handwritten, 6 pages.

Of particular note: Short story written by Guthrie in the Pocono Mountains. Differs slightly from version 2008-242-12.1.
*The Woody Guthrie Archives holds additional material that may be of interest. See "Related Materials" section below.

Item #13: 2008-242.13
Guthrie, Woody. Study Butte. Delaware Water Gap : September 15th, 1946. Typed, 27 pages.

Of particular note: Short story by Guthrie about traveling with his father and uncle to uncover a silver and gold mine, supposedly discovered years prior near the Rio Grande in Brewster County, Texas by Guthrie's great uncle Jerry P Guthrie. This Manuscript contains the following annotations to Strauss: "This is the short story which I sent out West. I am now blowing up the details so's a camera can see it almost like I saw it." Despite extensive editing and additions, the project was abandoned. Discovered among his papers, an expanded version of Study Butte was published posthumously as Seeds of Man under the direction of Marjorie Mazia by E.P. Dutton in 1976.

PUBLICATIONS

Item #14: 2008-242.14
Guthrie, Woody. American Folksong . New York: DISC Company of America, 1947. 48 pp. The Woody Guthrie Archives holds a copy of the cover, and the front and back flyleaf, from the Charlotte Strauss Collection.

Of particular note: Both the front and back flyleaf contain watercolor artwork by Guthrie, and annotations and dedications by Guthrie to Strauss written in 1947.

EPHEMERA

RELATED MATERIALS

In addition to the above items contained within the Charlotte Strauss Collection, the Woody Guthrie Archives holds additional material in which Guthrie references Strauss, or which relate directly to materials in the Charlotte Strauss Collection. The Archives holds several notebooks and journals in which Guthrie makes reference to Charlotte Strauss. In particular, Guthrie notes throughout a 1946 journal the dates on which he received and sent letters to Strauss [ Notebooks-1, Item-46 ]. For example, on January 2 nd , 1946, Guthrie notes: "Wrote to Charlotte. Rec'd 6 page letter from her." The following day, on January 3 rd , Guthrie notes: "Rec'd 4 page letter from Charlotte."

The Woody Guthrie Archives also holds the following material directly relating to items in the Charlotte Strauss Collection:

Item #11a & #11b: 2008-242.11.1/11.2 - Related Items:
Lomax, Alan. "To Hear Your Banjo Play". Creative Age Films, 1946.

Story & dialog by Alan Lomax. Produced by Irving Lerner & Willard Van Dyke. Narrated by Pete Seeger. Contains footage of Woody Guthrie singing Greenback Dollar/East Virginia with Baldwin Hawes, and John Henry with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Woody Guthrie Archives digital collection. Woody Guthrie Archives Digital Collections.

Item #13: 2008-242.13 - Related Items:
Guthrie, Woody. "Foolish Gold." Woody Guthrie Archives Manuscripts-1, Box-4, Folder-61, Item-1.