About Positively 4th Street:

Esteemed critic David Hajdu tells it as the story of a colorful foursome, including not only Bob Dylan but also his part-time lover Joan Baez; her sister Mimi, an artist in her own right; and Mimi's husband, Richard Fariña, a comic novelist who invented the worldly wise bohemian persona that Dylan adopted—some say stole—and made his own. A national bestseller, acclaimed as "one of the best books about music in America" (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post), Positively 4th Street is that rare book with a new story to tell about the 1960s.

About the Participants:

David Hajdu is the author of three books of narrative nonfiction and one collection of essays: Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn (1996), Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña (2001), The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America (2008), and Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture (2009). Lush Life and Positively 4th Street were both finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and both books won the ASCAP Deems-Taylor Award. The Ten-Cent Plague was a finalist for the Eisner award, and the editors of Amazon named it the #1 Best Book of the Year on the arts. Heroes and Villians was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and it won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. As an editor and magazine writer, Hajdu has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award several times, and his articles and essays have been selected for many anthologies.

Robert Polito's most recent books are Hollywood & God and The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber. He is also the author of the poetry collection Doubles, A Reader's Guide to James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover, and Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, which received that National Book Critics Circle Award. Polito is also the editor of seven books, including the Library of America volumes Crime Novels: American Noir Novels of the 1930s and 40s and Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s. His reviews, criticism, and essays on literature, film, and popular music have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including The Believer, Bookforum, on The Poetry Foundation website, and in Best American Essays and Best American Film Writing. The Founder and Director of the Graduate Writing Program at The New School, he is a Professor of Writing, and is currently completing Detours: Seven Noir Lives.