Grown-Up Anger (ePub)

A brilliantly intertwined account of two revolutionary musicians, a miners' strike, and a deadly tragedy: "Reads like a historical detective story." -The New York Times Book Review

At thirteen, when he first heard Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," Daniel Wolff recognized the sound of anger. When he later discovered "Song for Woody," Dylan's tribute to folk musician Woody Guthrie, Wolff fixed on it as a clue to a distinctive mix of rage and compassion. That clue led back to Guthrie's "1913 Massacre"-a memorial song about the horrific conclusion to a union Christmas party in Calumet, Michigan.

Following the trail from Dylan to Guthrie to a tragedy that claimed seventy-four lives, Wolff found himself tracing a century-long line of anger. From America's early industrialized days up to the present, the battle over economic justice keeps resurfacing: on a freight car in California, on a joyride through New Orleans, in a snowy field in Michigan. At the stunning conclusion-as the mysteries of Dylan, Guthrie, and the 1913 tragedy connect-the reader discovers a larger story, purposely distorted and buried in time.

A tour de force of storytelling years in the making that chronicles the struggles between the haves and have-nots, Grown-Up Anger is both a dual biography of two legendary songwriters and a murder mystery. It also serves as a history of labor relations and socialism, big business and greed in twentieth-century America-all woven together in one epic saga.

"A fascinating and relevant whirlwind examination of music, economic injustice, and two American icons." -Booklist (starred review)

"A masterful tale of music, social, and economic history... A dazzling, richly researched story impeccably told." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)