Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine, Vol. 1: 1941-1960: An Accident of Geography

Book 1 traces Bob Dylan's Minnesota roots, from his childhood in Hibbing to his artistic reinvention in the Twin Cities.

Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1941. In 1946, his father contracted polio, and the following year Dylan's family moved to the North Country town of Hibbing, located atop one of the world's largest deposits of iron ore. The mines around Hibbing fueled America's industrial growth at the turn of the century. It was here that in his teenage years Dylan's passion for music emerged.

Dylan attended Hibbing High from second grade through his high school graduation in spring of 1959. The crowning feature of the high school is its 1,800-seat auditorium, with a 1922 Steinway grand piano, made famous by a young Bob Dylan. In 1958, Dylan played with his band, The Golden Chords, performing their own brand of rock 'n' roll in front of the entire assembled class body at the school.

On January 31, 1959, Dylan attended a performance by Buddy Holly at the Hibbing Armory, an experience he found so electrifying that he included it as part of his Nobel Prize lecture.

A stone's throw from campus, in the hip, student-oriented neighborhood known as Dinkytown, the 10 O'Clock Scholar coffeehouse was a gathering place for young students attending the University of Minnesota. It was on stage at the Scholar where Bobby Zimmerman first introduced himself as Bob Dylan.

Woody Guthrie's life and music has been a lasting inspiration throughout Dylan's long career. In this early period of his life, while Dylan was immersing himself in folk-music records, he was also reinventing himself according to the model of Guthrie's hard-travelin' persona. This was a pivotal moment for the budding musician between becoming Bob Dylan and striking out east to New York to find Guthrie.