I discovered a Don Dilworth on the Net, sent him off an e-mail inquiring as to whether he was the composer of the Joan Baez version. This is his reply:

Dear Peter,

I am the guilty party!

As a student at MIT in the 50's I visited the "Club 47" coffee house in Harvard Square regularly, and discovered that if I brought my guitar and played a set they would let me in without paying the cover charge! Being a poor student I thought this a great treat. So I found myself warming up backstage next to JB on many occasions. She liked my classical guitar solos, and even invited me to play the processional at their home in Belmont when her sister Mimi (as I recall) got married.

One thing led to another, and when she got discovered by Manny Greenhill andleft our simple life for the bigtime, I gave her an envelope with the song in it. I have not personally heard anyone else's rendition, so I can't compare the arrangements. The book has some changes, mostly for the better. But when others rearrange your work, that is a sincere form of flattery -- and real folk music gets rearranged every generation. That's what makes it so good. I'd be proud to know that somewhere, someone was inventing marvelous new things to do with my humble song. Of couse, some royalties would be nice ....

In case you're interested, check out my homepage at www.gwi.net/dilworth. There's some info about my latest opera, and some MP3 excerpts from the music. I've gone big-time too -- but without getting paid, so far.

yours, Don Dilworth.