About the Book
Drawing on revelatory interviews, a rich analysis oflyrics, and a lifelong study of one of the greatest songwriters of our time, Daniel Mark Epstein delivers a singular, nuanced, and insightful examination ofBob Dylan--the poet, the musician, and the man. Interweaving in-depthconversations with Dylan collaborators and contemporaries, including Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora Guthrie, Ramblin'Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger, Maria Muldaur, John P.Hammond, and many others, Epstein crafts a vivid and unforgettable portrait ofthe inimitable poet and performer. Readers of Christopher Ricks' Dylan's Visions of Sin, the Dylanautobiography, Chronicles, or Sean Wilentz's Dylan inAmerica, as well as fans enthralled by expository musician stories, such asKeith Richards' Life and PattiSmith's Just Kids, will be captivatedby Epstein's unprecedented and incisive look at Bob Dylan, music's mostineffable creator.
About the Author :
Daniel Mark Epstein has written more than fifteen books of poetry, biography, and history, including the award-winning Lincoln and Whitman and The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, named one of the top ten books of the year by the Wall Street Journal and Chicago Sun-Times.
Review :
"Epstein is at his best dealing with his subject's Minnesota boyhood, embrace of folk music and meteoric early-'60s ascent; fresh recollections from Nora Guthrie, daughter of Dylan's role model Woody Guthrie, highlight the early going. Likewise, later chapters on the making of the important albums Time Out of Mind (1997) and Love and Theft (2001) benefit from revealing interviews with session men like drummer David Kemper and the late keyboardist-raconteur Jim Dickinson." - Kirkus Reviews
"In The Ballad of Bob Dylan, Daniel Mark Epstein does what few have been able to do at all, much less this well: capture that spirit, and in so doing, somehow manage to get closer to the essence of an American icon." - Dave Moyer, New York Journal of Books
"A galvanizing interpretation of Dylan's many masks and achievements. . . . Illuminates the complex symbiosis between Dylan's theatricalized personas and ever-evolving art." - Booklist
"Epstein was lucky enough to catch Dylan--and Dylan fever--early on, taking in a 1963 show, at the start of the singer's meteoric rise. His description of the show is testament to a 15-year-old's memory, packed with minutia--from each song's time signature to the position of Dylan's guitar capo. The reader quickly begins to fear the book is for only the most die-hard fanatics. But in subsequent chapters, the story picks up speed and as Epstein checks back on Dylan at subsequent concerts during various stages of the artist's career, his focus thankfully widens. . . . The Ballad of Bob Dylan works best as an introduction to one of the 20th century's most famous musician-poets or as something for hardcore fans to pick over." - Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers
"If you like Keith Richards' Life, then read The Ballad of Bob Dylan. Just in time for the musician's 70th birthday, Daniel Mark Epstein's biography offers a vivid portrait of the visionary artist." - US Weekly
"Epstein is not essentially a hagiographer, and . . . he remains essentially clear-eyed about his subject's achievements and failings. The Dylan that emerges in these pages is by turns ambitious, seductive, single-minded, generous, cruel, witty, kind, gnomic, blunt, and charismatic. . . . The accumulation of detail gives texture to Epstein's depiction of Dylan as a performer, which in turn buttresses his often perceptive analysis of the songs, both as texts and as performed works. . . . Epstein has a knack for sharp, indelibly etched character sketches. . . . Epstein's skills as an interviewer serve up a few unforgettable passages." - Webster Younce, National Review
"Though he covers all the landmarks in Dylan's life, Epstein is not engaged in biography in the strictest sense; rather, he presents an idiosyncratic and elliptical charting of Dylan's progress, and of his own life, through close examination of specific Dylan concerts he has attended through the years. . . . As a near-contemporary of Dylan, Epstein is in a better position than most to show how the meaning of an artist's work, and the nature of that work's effect on its audience, evolves over the long haul. An unabashed fan, Epstein is still no sentimentalist." - Ian McGillis, Montreal Gazette
"Insightfully written. . . . Epstein makes no apologies for being a longtime Dylan fan; in fact, he turns that into one of his book's greatest strengths, not shying from the highs and lows that come with fandom. The Baltimore resident structures his narrative around four Dylan shows he's attended over the years--concerts that correspond to important developments in Dylan's career. He examines them with passion and precision, consistently nailing what makes Dylan such a fascinating figure. . . . Along the way, he astutely notes Dylan's evolution from wise-cracking '60s child to wizened grandfather--a transformation that both humanizes and dignifies its subject." - John Lewis, Baltimore Magazine
"Brilliant--that Daniel Mark Epstein is both a poet and a biographer stands him in good stead in this penetrating, compassionate (but utterly clear-eyed), beautifully written portrait of Bob Dylan as an artist and a man. Among the very best writing about Dylan, ever." - James Kaplan, author of Frank: The Voice
"Intense and intimate. . . . Happily, the book is laced through with Dylan's lyrics. While many of these are now taken for granted as part of the vernacular, Epstein makes you appreciate anew just how many memorable words have flowed out of just one man. . . . A satisfyingly clear portrait emerges from the shadows, ever sharpening the focus on the most cleverly elusive artist in the age of media saturation." - John Belknap, Jewish Chronicle
"Raptly observant. . . . Historian and poet Epstein (The Lincolns) structures his loose-jointed chronicle around exegeses of iconic Dylan concerts he attended, analyzing the songs and the shifting persona of the singer: in 1963, the visionary 22-year-old folkie; in 1974, the bristling 30-something rocker; in 2009, the hoarse old man growling at Fate. It's a canny approach, given that Dylan's mythmaking--the middle-class son of a Minnesota appliance-store owner, he romantically styled himself a wandering orphan--outran the prosaic reality. . . . Will entrance hardcore Dylanophiles." - Publishers Weekly
"A historian who's written about Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman, Epstein's reflections on Dylan are as readable and non-pretentious as any. Also more up-to-date, obviously." - The Record (California)
"Even [Dylan] might approve of the mission that inspires the most recent crop of writing about him: to 'celebrate the impossibility of pinning down Bob Dylan'. . . . That means exploring the desire for change that drove Dylan from the start and still consumes him . . . as Epstein understands in his biography." - John Dickerson, Slate
"Plenty of good works explore Dylan's massive musical corpus but Epstein surpasses them in exploring Dylan's personal relationships. . . . Bob Dylan needs a poet, not a biographer. . . . Epstein is the poet Dylan deserves." - W. Scott Poole, PopMatters
"The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait, by the poet, biographer and translator Daniel Mark Epstein, begins with an account of a solo Dylan concert the author attended on Dec. 14, 1963. It's a beautiful thing, how he brings this evening back to life." - Jim Windolf, New York Times Book Review
"What sets Epstein's book apart is its accessibility. . . . Epstein is refreshingly direct and approachable, and while the author, also a folk musician, makes much of his extensive quotes from Dylan's lyrics, it is his own clear, emotional enthusiasm that carries the tale." - Rob Fitzpatrick, Sunday Times (London)
"Epstein, an accomplished poet and biographer, is one of the better stylists to tackle the Dylan story. . . . A musician himself, Epstein is particularly good on tunings and chord progressions, on where Mr. Dylan's capo is placed in each song and the sound his harmonica makes clicking into its holder." - David Yezzi, Wall Street Journal
"Offers a portrait that explodes the semi-hostile cliché of much unauthorized biography. New interviews and photographs add depth to an account distinguished by a fine sensitivity to all aspects of Dylan's art, from the personal to the music's history." - Tim Martin, Telegraph (London)
