In a long essay on the legendary folk singer, Leonard Cassuto explores the difficulty of getting to the real man behind the Dustbowl persona, which Cassuto describes as "a conscious work of performance art":

Guthrie's self-presentation disguised considerable learning. "He was incredibly well read," [This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Folk Song author Robert Santelli] said to me. "He ate books for lunch, just took in everything that was around him, from American history to biology." The Smithsonian's Folkways archive contains Guthrie's heavily annotated copy of the Federalist Papers. "He's arguing with the founders" all across the margins, Jeff Place, the head of the archive, told me.

Guthrie also wrote more than songs. Logsdon estimates that in addition to more than 3,000 poems and songs, Guthrie wrote dozens of essays, "at least three" novels, and thousands of letters. There are also more than 500 illustrations, some photography, and even a few oil paintings. "How many people," asked Logsdon admiringly this summer, "can illustrate their own writings?"