Positively 4th Street

The story of how four young bohemians on the make—Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez, and Richard Farina—converged in Greenwich Village, fell into love, and invented a sound and a style that are one of the most lasting legacies of the 1960's.

In Positively Fourth Street, David Hajdu tells the story of the emergence of folk music from cult practice to popular and enduring art form as the story of a colorful foursome: not only Dylan but his part-time lover Joan Baez—the first voice of the new generation; her sister Mimi—beautiful, haunted, and an artist in her own right; and her husband Richard Farina, a comic novelist (Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me) who invented the bohemian persona that Dylan adopted—some say stole—and made as his own.

Praise

“A hauntingly evocative blend of biography, musicology, and pop culture history.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“In a teetering stack of Dylan biographies and commentaries, [this is] the one new publication of distinction and clarity.”—David Remnick, The New Yorker

“This ambitious four-headed biographical narrative . . . vividly re-creates the folk era.”—Terrence Rafferty, GQ

About the Author(s)

David Hajdu

David Hajdu's first book, Lush Life, won the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award, was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and is being adapted for a feature film. Hajdu lives in New York City and writes for The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and The New York Review of Books.

photo: Copyright Michelle Heimerman

David Hajdu's blog

Visit David Hajdu's Website

Find David Hajdu on Goodreads

Visit the IMDB Page

Visit David Hajdu's Wikipedia page

   Book David Hajdu to speak at your next event