Ballad of an American

Earl Robinson, composer of "Joe Hill," "The House I Live In," "Black and White," The Lonesome Train, and Ballad for Americans, is a major figure in twentieth-century music. He was also one of the most affable and charming, full of honesty and a warm sense of humor.

In this book, largely written by Robinson and completed by Eric Gordon after Robinson's death, one takes a musical tour of America that extends from union halls and left-wing political groups of the 1930s to Broadway, Hollywood, the urban folk revival, and the New Age ethos of the 1980s. Along the way, one meets scores of the famous and near-famous, but none is more engaging than Robinson himself. Gordon accurately describes him as "a naive believer in common decency whom cynicism had never touched."