Credited by many as the first major figure in militant American folk music, Joe Hill (born Joel Hagglund in 1879) was a Swedish immigrant who mastered American English and wrote songs that traveled on foot and on the rails, through mining camps and factories, up and down the west coast and across the country. Hill, a laborer and talented musician, became an important activist and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World. He was executed by the State of Utah in 1915 for a murder of which he claimed to be innocent. His funeral in Chicago drew 30,000 admirers.
This selection of Hill’s letters chronicles his time in the Salt Lake County jail and the Utah State Prison as he awaited his execution. Among his correspondents are IWW organizers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and William “Big Bill” Haywood, as well as other workers and Judge O.N. Hilton, who took over as Hill’s attorney after his conviction. The reader follows the attempts by Hilton and the IWW to appeal Hill’s case based on a highly dubious trial and, finally, to wrest a pardon from Utah’s governor William Spry. At the same time, the reader appreciates Hill’s courageous and principled stand in the face of imminent death.
This expanded edition of The Letters of Joe Hill also features a selection of letters from before the murder trial, as well as a selection of his song lyrics, including “Rebel Girl,” “It’s a Long Way Down to the Soupline,” and “There Is Power in a Union.” With a foreword by musician Tom Morello, an introduction by American historian Philip S. Foner and helpful explanatory notes by Alexis Buss.
Contents
Foreword by Tom Morello
Introduction by Philip S. Foner
The Letters of Joe Hill:
Written While Incarcerated in Salt Lake City, Utah
The Letters of Joe Hill: Before the Frame-Up
Songs, Poems, and Comics in Chronological Order
Sources
On the Expanded Edition
Archival Sources by Correspondent
