Hello, Annie,

While not what you're asking for, I have the following quote on my Judy
Collins website from Abby Sale who was (or maybe still is) active on the
rec.music.folk list.

> The following note is courtesy of Abby Sale
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> of Orlando Florida: 25,000 textile
> workers strike agains the American Woolen Co. of Lawrence, MA, Jan 12,
> 1912. To get food and housing for the affected children, the IWW sent
> trainloads of the children to other cities. On Feb 5, 1912, Lawrence
> police attacked and clubbed the embarking children and their parents
> in order to reduce public sympathy for the strikers. The strike was
> won on March 12th. This strike was one of the few great successes for
> the IWW. It was a singing strike - men and women. One song they sang
> was "John Golden and the Lawrence Strike" by Joe Hill. James
> Oppenheim's poem was written during this strike.
Judy Collins sings this on her album titled "Bread and Roses" released
on Elektra 7E-1076 on 1976-08-25. The music that she sang it to was
written by the late Mimi Fariña (the younger sister of Joan Baez),
obviously sometime before 1976, but I do not know how long before. Mimi
took the name "Bread and Roses" for her charity which brought music and
entertainment to people who live in institutions, originally in
California. http://www.breadandroses.org/

You probably knew this, but if you writing a history of the song, this
is an interesting piece of fallout.

I realize that 1911 is mentioned on Wikipedia as the date for the poem
and I'd like to know if Abby's information is incorrect and I'll
(eventually) change my website.

Cheers,

Richard

On 2011-01-16 8:25 AM, Annie Valliere wrote:
> Dear Friends;
>
> I am on a search to find out what year or around what year Bread and Roses was first set to music. I understand that the first known music was written by Martha Coleman and Caroline Kohlsaat. The poem was written by James Oppenheim in 1911 but the music came later. The question I have is when.
>
> Caroline kohlsaat wrote a song book for children in 1921 with Clara Belle Baker. This makes me think that the music may have been written around then but I am not sure. I do have information that Kohlsaat and Coleman's music to Bread and Roses was seen on a song sheet dated 1947.
>
> Any thoughts people might have would be great.
>
>
> Annie Schneiderman Valliere
>

--
Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
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