“I’d been dreaming about that for a long time.” “I knew I had to get to New York,” Dylan mused to interviewer Cameron Crowe in 1985, when he was 44 years old. But it nonetheless a momentous occasion.īob Dylan, all of 19 years old and with ten bucks stuffed into his pocket, had arrived in New York City. There was no fanfare, and nobody would forever circle the date for posterity. Like so many others, he was determined to make his mark in the Mecca of the burgeoning U.S. (Some Dylanologists insist he arrive at the George Washington Bridge and headed downtown from there.) A recent college dropout from the Iron Range in northwest Minnesota, Dylan grabbed his valise and guitar and jumped on the downtown subway to Greenwich Village. 24, the book “Wanted Man: In Search of Bob Dylan” related, a four-door Pontiac stopped on 62nd Street.

Locally, New York City, too, was making history, though of a more forgettable type, experiencing its roughest winter in 28 years.Īgainst this backdrop, on the late afternoon of Jan. President, ending the drab Eisenhower years and ushering in the Swinging Sixties. Kennedy placed his hand on a Bible and duly became the 35th U.S. Sixty years ago, the times were a-changin’.

This new illustrated edition, published in the year of Dylan’s 80th birthday, includes key images of Dylan throughout his incredible, enduring career, making it a must for all Dylan fans. . Following his Nobel Prize for Literature Award in 2016, Dylan’s standing is higher than at any time since the 1960s and Shelton’s book is now seen as a classic. Concluding Dylan’s story during his triumphant 1978 world tour, No Direction Home took 20 years to complete and when it was finally published the book received widespread critical acclaim. Shelton tells the intimate and first-hand story of Bobĭylan’s formative years in Greenwich Village NYC, and it is the only biography that has been written with his active cooperation. Dylan gave Shelton access to his parents, Abe and Beatty Zimmerman – whom no other journalist has ever interviewed to his brother, David to childhood friends from Hibbing to fellow students and friends from Minneapolis and to Suze Rotolo, the muse immortalized on the cover of Freewheelin’, among others. His book, first published in 1986, was hailed as the definitive unauthorized biography of this moody, passionate genius.

He became Dylan’s friend, champion, and critic. Robert Shelton met Bob Dylan when the young singer arrived in New York in 1961.

Robert shelton bob dylan