A Bob Dylan Book Club Recommended Curriculum (our first!) on Greenwich Village, the Folk Scene, & the rise of Bob Dylan

A new book, David Browne’s Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capital will be published September 17, 2024 via Hachette Books. Reviews are appearing: see www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-browne/talkin-greenwich-village/ and bestclassicbands.com/talkin-greenwich-village-music-book-david-browne-8-20-24/. There is now an excellent series of books that are the basis for a Bob Dylan Book Club Recommended Curriculum focusing on the rise of Bob Dylan in the early 1960s, when he became Bob Dylan and was exploring his craft and finding his passion and power (printable version HERE). Timely, too, because this is the very same period that is the focus of the soon (Christmas/Chanukah Day?) to be released Bob Dylan Biopic A Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet.
There are 5 key memoirs:
Dylan, Bob: Chronicles Volume One (2004)
McKenzie, Peter. K. Bob Dylan: On a Couch & Fifty Cents a Day. (2021). [Book Club Selection!]
Rotolo, Suze. A Freewheelin’ Time: A memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties (2008). [Book Club Selection!]
Thal, Terri. My Greenwich Village: Dave, Bob, and Me. (2023). Link, link
Van Ronk, Dave with Elijah Wald. The Mayor of MacDougal Street: A Memoir. (2012).
Plus, Elijah Wald’s thoughtful and deeply research treatment of the folk scene:
Wald, Elijah. Dylan Goes Electric: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties. (2015). [Book Club Selection!]
And:
Barone, Richard. Music + Revolution: Greenwich Village in the 1960s. (2022).
Barretta, Scott. The Conscience of the Folk Rival, the Writings of Israel “Izzy” Young. (2012).
Hajdu, David. Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina. (2004).
Maymudes, Jacob, and Victor Maymudes. Another Side of Bob Dylan: A Personal History on the Road and Off the Tracks. (2014).
Miles, K.G., with contributors. Bob Dylan In the Big Apple: Troubadour Tales of New York. (2022).
Petrus, Stephen, and Ronald D. Cohen. Folk City: New York and the American Folk Music Revival. (2015)
Sawyers, June. Bob Dylan’s New York. (2022). Link
Weissman, Dick. Bob Dylan’s New York, a Historic Guide. (2022).
Woliver, Robbie. Hoot! A 25-year history of the Greenwich Village Music Scene. (1994).
AND FINALLY: if you want a beautiful first-hand account of the December 14, 1963 concert by Bob Dylan in Lisner Auditorium (Washington, DC), that will, thanks to the eyes and ears of a 15 year old Dylan enthusiast who took notes in a spiral bound notebook, magically transport you to back to Dylan at the height of his solo folk performances, read the first three chapters of:
Epstein, Daniel Mark. The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A portrait. (2011).