Positively Main Street: Bob Dylan's Minnesota
by Toby Thompson
from Univ Of Minnesota Press
“That boy . . . this fellow, Toby . . . has got some lessons to learn.” —Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone, November 29, 1969 "Toby Thompson was there first." —Greil Marcus
“A first-rate novelistic account of Thompson’s own psyche as he uncovers the Dylan few people know . . . A new look at young Dylan done with kindness, enthusiasm and superb language.” —William Kennedy, Look Magazine
“Essential reading. Thompson, unprecedentedly, managed to interview not only Echo Helstrom, almost certainly the ‘Girl of the North Country,’ but Dylan’s mother and brother, his uncle, his friends.” —Michael Gray’s Bob Dylan Encyclopedia
“Dylan fans will not want to miss this book.” —Sioux City Journal
“Enough to satisfy any Dylan fan with all the gossip he’ll ever need.” —Huntsville Times
“Well worth the attention of anyone who has fallen under the spell of the boy from the North Country.” —Los Angeles Times
“It’s a must.” —Ft. Worth Press "Thompson tracked down anybody who knew 'Die-lan' (as the Hibbingites called him), including the guy at the local music store, the guy at the motorcycle shop, his English and music teachers, his uncles, his brother David and even his reluctant but ultimately charmingly chatty mother. Of course, Thompson traveled into a few dead ends. But the stuff with Dylan's mom and his high school girlfriend, Echo Helstrom, is priceless. Positively Main Street is a free-wheelin', fun and quick read that is surprisingly informative." —Minneapolis Star Tribune "Hundreds of books have been written about Minnesota's most famous songwriter; Bob Dylan's life and music has been analyzed by fans, scholars, and even himself. So, why do we need Toby Thompson's Positively Main Street: Bob Dylan's Minnesota? Because it's a forgotten milestone. Published in 1971, it was the first biography on Dylan. Although it's been out of print since 1977, the book is, with the exception of Dylan's autobiography, perhaps the most readable and necessary volume on the folk icon." —City Pages "The new Positively Main Street is a lovely little book, even better than the original, a cherished addition to the Dylan bookshelf. Thompson and the University of Minnesota Press have enhanced what was already a classic and made it available to a whole new audience. Dylan fans owe them a debt of gratitude." —The Dylan Daily "[Thompson] ends up not only interviewing 'the Girl from the North Country,' Echo Haelstrom, and 'Bob’s' mother and brother and teachers etc., but also filling in for Dylan among his old friends and acquaintances, playing Dylan’s songs on the guitar and harmonica and singing them, in a way that may have seemed stratingly revolutionary at the time for a journalist to do, he actually recreates a bit of Dylan’s existence as his own." —Michael Lally, Lally's Alley
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.
Story of Cole Younger: By Himself (Borealis Books)
by Cole Younger
from Minnesota Historical Society Press
Missouri guerrilla, Confederate officer, bank robber, notorious outlaw, Wild West showman--Cole Younger's life was the stuff of myth and legend. In The Story of Cole Younger, long out-of-print, he tells his story in his own words after his parole from prison at the age of 59.
Born near Lee's Summit, Missouri, Thomas Coleman ("Cole") Younger (1844-1916) rode with William Clarke Quantrill's Confederate raiders during the Civil War, participating in many daring and bloody exploits, including the infamous Lawrence, Kansas, massacre of 1863. Following the war, Younger continued his celebrated career as a desperado, robbing banks and trains with Jesse James and other members of the James-Younger gang. A fateful attempt in 1876 on the Northfield, Minnesota, bank sent Cole to the state prison in Stillwater, Minnesota for decades. There he became a model resident, helping both to protect women convicts during a fire and found the Prison Mirror, a newspaper intended to shed "a ray of light upon the lives of those behind the bars." Paroled in 1901, Younger successfully sought a pardon, operated a Wild West show with his old comrade Frank James, and lectured on "What My Life Has Taught Me." Always known for intelligence and coolness under pressure, he publishe! d this autobiography in 1903, reflecting on the colorful and sometimes violent experiences of "the gentleman, the soldier, the outlaw, and the convict."
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Minnesota Twins: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching Moments from Minnesota Twins History (The Good, the Bad, ... the Ugly) (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)
by Steve Aschburner
from Triumph Books
Are you ready for the real story of the Minnesota Twins? Born in 1961, the Twins have a long history of legends and goats, great comebacks and colossal failures, World Series championships and heartbreaking losses. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Minnesota Twins is a must for every fan who wants an unflinching look at the greatest--and worst--players, coaches, and moments in Twins history!
Northland Wildflowers: The Comprehensive Guide to the Minnesota Region, Revised Edition
by John B. Moyle
from University of Minnesota Press
Regional/Nature
New photography by John Gregor
The classic wildflower guide of the North, now in a long-awaited new edition!
For more than two decades the first edition of Northland Wildflowers has been the standard guide to wildflowers of the Upper Midwest and Canada, and has become an indispensable reference. Now, a substantial revision presents more than three hundred species of commonly found wildflowers, all stunningly captured in new full-color images by photographer John Gregor.
The most comprehensive and informative book on this subject, Northland Wildflowers is destined also to be regarded as the most beautiful. Its six sections are divided by the color of bloom, making it the ideal guide for the gardener, the hiker, and the roadside traveler. Each entry is highlighted with a photograph and description of the species and its habitat and a mention of related species. A thorough bibliography, glossary, and index make this an essential resource.
In addition to information on how to identify wildflower species, Northland Wildflowers recommends the best seasons for viewing each variety and suggest how to plant, grow, and preserve wildflowers. Notes on Ojibwe medicinal and culinary uses of flowers, such as wintergreen and milkweed, as well as a look at which plants are immigrants from Europe, such as the sow thistle and the dandelion, will fascinate all.
This spectacularly illustrated new edition of Northland Wildflowers is sure to become the key guide for gardeners and nature lovers of the North.
John B. Moyle (1909-1977) was a biologist and research supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and a frequent contributor to the Minnesota Volunteer. Evelyn W. Moyle is a longtime wildflower enthusiast, photographer, and gardener. She lectures and leads wildflower walks near her home in Excelsior, Minnesota.
John Gregor is owner of ColdSnap Photography. His photography has appeared in Growing Home: Stories of Ethnic Gardening by Susan Davis Price (1999) and in Trees and Shrubs for Northern Gardens by Leon Snyder (2000), both available from the University of Minnesota Press.
A Place in the Woods
by Helen Hoover
from University of Minnesota Press
The Singing Wilderness (The Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book Series)
by Sigurd F. Olson
from University of Minnesota Press
to do with the calling of loons, with northern lights, and the great silences of land lying northwest of Lake Superior. It is concerned with the simple joys, the timelessness and perspective found in a way of life which is close to the past. I have heard the singing in many places, but I seem to hear it best in the wilderness lake country of the Quetico-Superior, where travel is still by pack and canoe over the ancient trails of the Indians and voyageurs." Thus the author sets the theme and tone of this enthralling book of discovery about one of the few great primitive areas in our country which have withstood the pressures of civilization.
Acute natural perceptivity and a profound knowledge of the relationships to be found in nature combine here in vivid evocations of the sights, the sounds, the vast stillnesses, and the events of the wilderness as the seasons succeed each other. But Mr. Olson is not content merely to "describe; he probes for meanings that will lead the reader to a different and more revealing way of looking at the out-of-doors and to a deeper sense of its eternal values. In each of the thirty-four chapters of The Singing Wilderness he has sought to capture an essential quality of our magnificent lake and forest heritage. He shows us what can be read from the rocks of the great Canadian Shield; he offers a delightful essay on the virtues of pine knots as fuel; he writes of the ways of a canoe, of flashing trout in the pools of the Isabella, of tamarack bogs, caribou moss, the flight of wild geese, timber wolves, and the birds of the ski trails. And much more, with something to satisfy every taste for wilderness experience.
Superbly illustrated with 38 black-and-white drawings by Francis Lee Jaques, The Singing Wilderness is a book that no lover of nature will want to be without. To anyone who contemplates a vacation in the lake country of northern Minnesota and adjoining Canada, it is the perfect vade mecum.
Weird Minnesota (Weird)
by Eric Dregni
from Sterling
Over The Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising Of 1862
by Duane Schultz
from St. Martin's Griffin
Minnesota 150: The People, Places, and Things that Shape Our State
by Kate Roberts
from Minnesota Historical Society Press
