Positively Main Street

In the late sixties, Toby Thompson enthusiastically took off for Hibbing, Minnesota, in search of Bob Dylan’s roots. Thompson grooves on the story of Dylan’s beginnings, meeting the locals who knew Bobby Zimmerman the loner, not Bob Dylan the legend. With unprecedented access to Dylan’s English and music teachers, his high school girlfriend Echo Helstrom, and countless neighbors and relatives, Thompson discovers the real person behind the mythology Dylan created. 

This updated version includes an interview with the author, previously unpublished photographs, and a new preface by Thompson.

Toby Thompson is associate professor of creative writing at Penn State University and the author of Saloon and The ‘60s Report. He has also written for numerous magazines including Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Playboy, and Esquire.