Suze Rotolo

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G'day Suze!

Just wanted to send you a big "G'day mate" from sunny Brisbane here in the Land Down under.

I've just been reading Freewheelin' Time again (it's the fourth time around now!). I love reading your book and learning about that amazing time in NYC in the 60's. So far in distance from here but you know, in so many ways similar too. People are people all over the world, so many common themes shared by us all in those heady days of youth and early adulthood.

Anyway - thanks so much for sharing your memories with us and please have a think about bringing a tour of your artwork down under. Brisbane has a great new Modern Art museum - we'd love to see your work on display here. I'm sure we could manage to throw an extra shrimp on the barbie for you too!

All the best and warm greetings from Australia.

Mike, Brisbane, Australia




Hi Suze

I just finished reading your book.Thaks a lot for sharing with us.When I first listened to you in No direction home I realised what a beatiful voice you have and how smart you seemmed to be.I am 43 y.o. and I just can thank you for what you and some more of your generation did for a better world to live.I wish you the Best and all the love.

Javier
(Spain)

Hello Suze

Firstly, I have to admit I'm having to pinch myself to believe I'm sending a message to someone whose face and name has been familiar to me for over 45 years.
I read 'A Freewheelin' Time' just over a year ago, when it first came out in the UK. Few books I've read have managed to capture the spirit of a place and time as eloquently and passionately as yours. As a 60 y.o. Englishman, of course, I lived through the time, but in a totally different place - lovely as the Suffolk countryside is, it's hardly been the place where 'it's all happening.'
I listened to the album several times whilst I was reading your book and, for me, the two had a sort of Yin/Yang relationship -reading your book gave an extra perspective to the music which I'd known all those years They were certainly exciting (and dangerous!) times to live through. The fact that you did live through them and were able to recount them with candour and humour gave my, often fragile, faith in human nature a huge boost.
Thanks for a great book and wishing you every happiness in your life.

Sincerely
Bruce Hatton
willow28@rocketmail.com

Hello Suze,

I just finished reading your book and was so touched by the nature of your writing style. What I was most impressed with was your candid and open recollections of not only Dylan, but your personal experiences of the time. Thank you so much for writing your book; I read it at exactly the right time in my own life, as there are many similarities and parallels between my current position and yours before leaving the Village for Italy. Thank you for telling your inspirational story :-)

Marlie C.

You have inspired so many people along the way. The world is a much nicer place because of you. You know...you are truly appreciated. thanks for just being and giving so much
Ted Straton
Atlanta, GA

Hello Suze! I loved your book!! We could be related haha..I too inherited my parents Sicilian blonde hair and blue/green eyes.
I made a facebook page in your honor..hope you like it
http://www.facebook.com/violetcourtneylove?ref=profile#/pages/Suze-Rotolo/293172206017?v=wall&ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/violetcourtneylove?ref=profile#/pages/Suze-Rotolo/293172206017?v=wall&ref=t

Hey my name is Alex Littlewood im 22 and im from the UK, im reading your book at the moment and i@d just like to say how much i enjoy reading it!! also what music are you listening to these days? my favs are Bruce Springsteen and u2 thanks,

Alex

ms. rotolo

just read your book. enjoyed it. led me to believe that i need to create more. i've got a journal for poems and art work that an artist and teacher from Asheville, nc led me to get started in - but sometimes its hard to look into the mirror. my wife does artwork all the time. she's smarter. that's why i married her. thanks for the inspriration.
bob from the great town of pikeville, eastern nc

I just read your book in paperback during a Christmas-season trip to New York City and it delighted and moved me. I'm roughly a contemporary of yours but grew up in a very different environment: Alabama during the Fifties and Sixties. Nevertheless, that Greenwich Village life of the early 60s you wrote about so evocatively was a dream and a beacon to me and has been in one way or another throughout my life. I remember vividly visiting the Village in 1966-67, seeing The Bitter End and the other places I had only heard about and imagined, and feeling as though I had somehow come home. Of course, I hadn't: home was where I had grown up and come from. But it became a better place for me because of those young dreams of New York City and The Village. Congratulations on the success of your book. Much happiness.

My favorite song, which sometime when heard brings tears. I thank you for your inspiration for Boots of Spanish Leather.

Don Houser
Lock Haven, Pa

Hi Suze,
I enjoyed reading your book. I too grew up in NYC. I missed the early part of the sixties and was just old enough to catch the very late sixties. At that time there were so many things that were just legend and myth. Reading your book gave me insight into the things that seemed a mystery to me. I especially appreciated the picture of a community of artists and the easy flow of people and social situations. I love the portrait (written and actual) of the young Dave Van Ronk whose music I love and still listen to. One thing stands out. You mentioned the sense of forbodding and paranoia that you felt. This was something I felt too but thought they must be my own projections. I am glad to know others felt it too. I am amazed at your young life of privileges and tragedies. Your book is a gem on the subject of the sixties in NYC.

Congratulations on your wonderful book. This is the first time I have ever written anything like this but I really feel compelled to thank you for writing about your life. You are so lucky to have experienced the times you have and be able to recount them so beautifully.
You have truly made a differance, God bless xx

hy - enjoyed your book very much.it is much appreciated it wasn't a cheap tell all tale about bob, but was told with warmth and from the heart. i also enjoy your art work and wish you much good fortune with it,,, may god bless and keep you always and may you stay forever young...take care cindy and dennis

Dear Susan,

I'm Valentina a 19-years-old journalism and literature student from Buenos Aires who's just finished reading A freewheelin' time, loved it and felt completely inspired by your life.
I would love to make you belive this is not just another mail from a fan.
It would be more than exciting for me to be able to interview you for an article about...well...you and your expierience in Cuba, as an artist, and a symbol of the '60.
As I live way far New York City (at least for a couple of years) I would e-mail you some questions and you would answer taking any time you want.

I understand if it's not possible, I just had to give it a shot.
Thank you very much for the attention and sorry if I made mistakes, my english is not perfect yet.

val.ruderman@gmail.com
Valentina Ruderman
Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I do admire you and your opera, Suze.
Maybe because I come from a family of artists, I could fully appreciate and enjoy the endless class and charm of your beautiful book.
Your visual art compositions really impress me as well: thank you for making me feel alive and young again!
PS: you should have left on line the comments of that James McCarthy ( whatever he wrote): the only function of idiots like him is making nice people like you appear even bigger (and I don�t like the Britons anyway)
Adrian (Salt Lake City)



P.S. I accidentally forgot to sign the last posting about James McCarthu jejune, irrational rant. "Peter from Cardiff" is quite right in saying that we all truly love and admire you. Frank de Falco

Suze: James McCarthy's disturbing and disturbed posting makes it clear that he has not read the book he's criticizing. If he had, he would know that you have been on the side of underdogs, the marginalized and the disenfranchised of society since you were 17. He suggests that those of us who were there and remember/honor pivotal moments of the 60s, such as the beginning of the gay rights movement with the 1969 Stonewall riots are parasites. You are neither as parasite or a loser, as McCarthy so crudely and unprofessionally puts it. Suze, you are a true hero whose current book art, of which Mr. McCarthy seems willfully unaware, continues to inspire, provoke and ultimately comfort a "loser" like me, McCarthy seems not to understand that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

I was disgusted to read the last comment published on your blog: disgusted but not surprised: J McCarthy is a well known idiot, a failed gay reporter from the Cardiff area, who writes trash and insults people only to earn that little money allowing him to scrape by.
What a jerk!
We all love you here in the UK, Suze and we really enjoyed your book
I hope to meet you someday
Peter from Cardiff


~msg deleted for foul language and disposition~


Ms. Rotolo,
I wanted to tell you ,obviously, how much I loved your book. It seems crazy, seeing as I'm only 14, but I saw myself in you. You opened up my entire soul and started rippin' out things I didn't even know existed. You let me see that I'm not the only person in the world who thinks and feels like I do. I want you to know that you shook my life so hard. It read your words and feel comfort and passion and I don't even know what. So, theres not much more that I can say. I guess I feel conected to you some how, if that makes any sense. I will always hope to be half the person you are. I love your book, and I guess I love you too.
Marta
babymarta@live.com


Ms. Rotolo,
Thank you, Ms. Rotolo, for doing all the work necessary to create your illuminating, fascinating book, "A Freewheelin' Time." Now I see that my mental picture of that time and place was incomplete and unclear...you filled in so many empty spaces! At last, Greenwich Village with her artists are real and imperfect after all. My dreams of them when a teenager in preparatory school, listening to folk music and reading beat literature, were quite mythical.

Even though I loved learning details about your intimate associations with phenomenal musicians, artists, and writers of that era, I was relieved that you had your own life with other friends in America and Europe so that you could escape the mayhem of that scene when it became necessary. As much as I admire Mr. Dylan's career, I admire your insistence on self respect even more. What is Janet Kerr up to these days? You two shared such amazing adventures. Is she a practicing artist as well, or a professor perhaps? She seemed to be as creatively inclined and thoughtful as yourself.

Thanks again, Susan, for the beautifully written, insightful history...every bit as good as Chronicles, Vol. 1 by BD. Have you considered writing a more extensive biographical book about your Italian heritage, family history, and the places of your ancestry? You have a way of inviting the reader to come along, walking within whispering distance of your penetrating observations. George Miller, Portage Michigan

Hi Suze, i feel so lonesome. what do you do when you feel so lonesome you cant even listen to music or read books, i dont know how to cope with it. You are a very talented and beautiful woman, and i hope to find a girl like you someday. i hope that doesnt sound strange

Dear Suze (or do you prefer Susan),

I am writing this to you because I'm interested in expanding my knowledge about our family and its. I am the grandson of Pietro Pezzati, Peter Pezzati's
son. So, I suppose that makes us cousins once removed.
I have always been curious of some the roots of our family, and needless to say, the information contained on the Internet is lacking. Frankly, I don't know what to believe. Heck, I don't even know that muchabout my own father's background nonetheless the rest of the family. I would be interested to hear of anything you might have to offer. Hopefully this reaches you, I most certainly want to keep the lines of communication going. You may reach me via email at pezzati@berkeley.edu or if you prefer you may reach me at my cellphone 415-259-7510
Sincerely,
Anthony Pezzati




Yestarday(10/04/09) I hear dylan's �uTalking New York�v
at WNYC-Oscar Brand's Folk Song Festival in my house
near Sumida River, downtown Tokyo.
I hope that your memorial book has published in Japanese.
Kiyohide Kunizaki at Tokyo Folklore Center

Suze,

I couldn't put your book down. You are a great writer and an inspirational woman. Thank you for putting your memories of the 60's in writing. You've lived an amazing life, and I only know a small portion of it. Being a 22 year old woman, I could identify with your struggles. You inspire me to be a strong independent woman and stand up for what I believe in. I can't thank you enough for sharing

Just finished reading your memoir -- so beautifully written. I envy the courage you had as a very young woman, and the grace you have now as an older, wiser artist. I also was a young denizen of the Village then. (I spent 1963 at the Bleecker Street Circle in the Square, and met my life partner at the pub next door); the authenticity of your detail in smoothly constructing the Village's persona is both chilling and warming. Anything that came to mind, as I read, eventually became part of your story; no sooner did I think about the flower lady (they were red roses), than she was on the page. The Bleecker Tavern was of course in her route.... and what I particularly recall is that she never spoke even when selling her wares. She simply placed a rose on the table and stood back. The first time Steve bought one for me and asked the price, she just raised a single finger. When we'd bought enough roses, over time, we'd just shake our heads as she set down the flower, and she'd pick it up again, return it to the loose bouquet on her arm, and move on. I can't believe you actually SAW the rumored limo. I was sure Steve had invented the story
of "the black Cadillac around the corner" to make me feel
better when we opted not to buy. Thanks for the memory...and the wise perspective of the time. How I missed the folk songs as we protested the invasion of Iraq on that crowded, Second Avenue day; the young people just kept banging loudly.monotonously and coldly on a makeshift mettle drum. Marcia Kaufman/ mk_mirage @att.net

As a young woman trying to find her feet in the world this book was incredibly enlightening for me. I felt almost an affinity with you and your life as a younger woman. Thank you ever so much for sharing that part of your life with the world. I am sure that I speak for everyone who has read, who are reading and who will read your book in the future that it is very much appreciated.

Congratulations!
With kind regards

Nathalie
United Kingdom.

Wow! We shared so many of the same friends and passions although I was six years older. But I was there the night my erstwhile friend, Mark Spoelstra, brought Bob to open for John Lee Hooker. Dave Van Ronk, Tom Paxton and I played sets at the Commons on Bleecker. Dave did a cover of one of my songs, Mean World Blues, and just this year, a collectors' record was released with songs of mine from back then. Your book brought it all back; the times, the places, and, especially, the people. Wasn't that a time? Thank you, Suze, for getting it down on paper. Niela Miller

I just finished your A Freewheelin' Time about your life with Bob Dylan and I was hooked till the very end. I'm your generation and so much of your life was like mine but in Toronto and the village. I attended OCA and also went off to Europe leaving a boyfriend behind who I am no longer with. But after caring so much about you in the book I think you rather leave us hanging by cutting it all short. I understand that your privacy is important but it would have been nice to know if you'd found someone, had kids besides the professional career. Because the story involved so much emotional content it leaves me wondering about how you made out. Too bad you didn't include more about yourself and your close friends afterwards. Take care.



Dear Suze:

I just finished reading your wonderful book: �A Freewheelin Time� and enjoyed it immensely. Since we are of the same generation, having been a long-time Greenwich Village resident and also having attended and graduated from Bryant High School in 1960, I strongly identified with your background and the �freewheelin,� youthful, exuberant era you so aptly describe.

Your memoir is a lovely and poignant tribute to the musical and artistic creativity evident in Greenwich Village, as well as the youthful Bob Dylan, in the early 60�s. Your writing style is flowing, lucid, incisive and fast-paced. The content is not only sophisticated and insightful, but it is also self-reflective, informative and honest with respect to your relationship with Dylan, his and your associates, and your reaction to contemporary events. To the extent that Dylan�s music and lyrics have attained an immortal quality that will inspire generations of future musicians and poets, your book is an exemplary memoir that should be a first stop for anyone who wants to study a community of folk- music artists whose influence stretched far beyond their own times.

Congratulations to you for having composed this marvelous, autobiographical memoir of the times that were indeed �a changing.� I believe that your talent and true calling is that of a writer and hope that you will continue that calling. But if you never write another word, or attain great fame and fortune as an artist, �A Freewheelin Time� is an enduring and delightful work of art in its own right. It reminds us all as we grow older, that we should, in the words of Bob Dylan, stay �forever young� in soul and spirit.

Howard Prince
September 4, 2009
hmprince@verizon.net


well I must tell you that I loved the book. I am a 64 year old x hippy from that same time. I was at Woodstock.... invited to participate in the bindy Bazaar and spent a total of 5 days there with my crew of 9 long hair politically active left of center employees. I spent tons of time in the village from 64 on and had lots of head shops and clothing stores in the 60's all over New Hampshire. I saw Dylan when he play electric at Newport and was one who did not boo. I loved it and it was way over due. Your free form style of writing and openess was great and I want to commend you on your ability to tell it like it was from all sides. I am so honoured that I lived during this time and my three children are way better off because of it. Thanks and good luck with everything Dave Heifetz

Dear Suze,
So odd that two people growing up in essentially the same neighborhood and in families so similar can have had our lives spin off in such different directions because of choices we made in our teens. I have bought several copies of the book for several of my kids and keep my own close at hand. It will be good to see you again sometime old friend.
Lucy Wright Cooney

Suze,

So, who's that guy with you on the cover of your book???

I just finished "Freewheelin" and just wanted to say thanks for sharing so much of yourself, and bringing the golden age of Greenwich Village to life for all of us so vividly. After all the Ken Burns style documentaries, your recollections breathed life into the place and the characters who inhabited it. I must admit I picked up the book orginally because of your association with you-know-who (hey, Harry Potter movie #6 just came out, so needed a topical reference!) but after reading it I'll look at you now through your lens, not his. I sincerely hope that in the pages that came after the last chapter, you found the place you were looking for.

One theme that stays with me from the book is: youth. Firstly, you were so young, and so much was happening in your life. I could barely find my way to the door when I was 18 - it's hard to imagine being that age and coping with the crushing, consuming world that descended down upon you. And second, your own observation on the difference between the involvement of your generation and this current one. Political specifics aside, it is striking how involved you were, and how UN-involved today's generation is - and proudly so, in fact. It's not a good sign. As Peter O'Toole once said as T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, speaking of England, "It's a fat country filled with fat people". So appropriate a description of our land, these days.

But I digress...

Thanks again for your book, and the trip in the time machine!

Best wishes,
Ray Ullmer
acrosstheriver2@optonline.net


I read your book the week it was published last year. You recreated those times so beautifully that I actually felt as if I were standing in the rooms you were describing. I also just want to say that I felt just awful when I found out what happened to the green coat! Believe it or not, I always wondered what happened to it.

Marjorie from Wisconsin

Suze,

You write fantastically. It's a shame that your love life was so public, then again , it wasn't. So not many people "got it" until you spoke out in this book. ..

I was never a die hard Dylan Fan. No on who spoke about him 24/7. No one whom claimed they knew everything there was to know about him.

This is a great story because you can remember not only the voices of others around you, but you can tell how strongly you were fighting, silently, for your own freedom to life&love; not to be by one's side having only love keeping you together.

I have not seen you speak in any interview, or read much else but your book. I will keep it that way. Your book says so much more, and you are with Dylan in most of the interviews, so..how could you really say what you felt?

Glad to have known the book . Congrats with the success.

Elena from New Jersey.

Dear Suze,
I can relate to so many of the feelings you describe in "Freewheelin'". Although the times and people are not the same; growing up, feeling different, having a different family background, the pain and wonder of first love, and first heartbreak seem to be universal. Thank you for writing your story, I believe it is a timeless one.
Sincerely, Karyn

Can you help our book club networking service with a link from your site to ours? http://www.readerscircle.org/
Norman Hicks
CEO, Reader's Circle
nhicks@readerscircle.org


Suze,

A few years ago, I saw you speak for the first time in "No Direction Home" and I was gobsmacked. Having held your counsel for 40 years, to hear you speak for the first time was an experience akin to being winked at by the Mona Lisa!

I just finished your book today and wanted to say how much I enjoyed being in the company of your thoughts and words. I related to so much of what you said and thats rare in any writing that I come across. It was a pleasure to travel with you (in spirit) for a few days.
Take care,
Karl, Dublin, Ireland

Suze, I too have just finished your wonderful book, so evocative of the age. Thank you for writing it. I gained much more from that than from Antony Scaduto's book on Bob. You were lovely and talented then, and you are lovely and talented now. Please come to England soon.
Chris Parsons

Having just finished your wonderful book, I just wanted to leave you a note to say how thoroughly I enjoyed it. Part of the reason I did of course was because I grew up in the West Village in the sixties, and I must say, reading your recollections really took me back! I don�t think I have encountered many recently who remember what it was like to visit and haggle with Francis at �Francis TV�, (my family's three secondhand TV sets all came from Francis), the smells of bread baking at 5 in the morning, the female inmates from the WHD calling down to �Doris � don�t forget to pick up cigarettes!� and the rest. By coincidence, I also went to SVA in the 70s and fondly remember the late, great Jack Potter�s drawing classes. One of the best teachers I ever had.

However, what I feel your book did more successfully than anything I have read about that time, was that it conveyed a sense of an unselfconscious earnestness and sincerity, that I believe did exist in that admittedly highly confused, flawed and often very misrepresented decade, and is oven completely overlooked or minimized nowadays. It was refreshing to feel that again in your words, after so many have all but half written that era off as little more than a drug infused, self deluded, indulgent mess. And of course, The Village, (and the city itself,) was such a very different, and truly magical place than it can ever be again.

My wife and I actually met you briefly a few years ago at publishing party for Dave Van Ronk�s (& Elijah Wald�s) posthumous autobiography (my label co-produced the accompanying cd �The Mayor of MacDougal Street� in 2005). Now, having finished your book, there is so much more I wish we could have discussed on that occasion! Well, anyway, thank you very much for the great, really special book. It was a true pleasure from beginning to end!
Nick Fritsch



Your book has shown me a lot about a time, place, and lifestyle that I unfortunately will not get to experience. I really enjoyed the depiction of Bob: it's so rare to find people describing him as a man, and not an icon. Well, unless you read accounts by those who knew him. I was also really caught up in the descriptions of other Folk legends of the day. Now they're more than just voices on a speaker, they're real people to me. I loved you book, and it's making it's way around my circle of friends, following "Bound For Glory" by Woody. Your book gave me a good look at an exciting time, and I'm grateful to you for writing it. Also, my friend (who is looking through it in the room) wants me to tell you that all you're really pretty. Again, thanks. Mike

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing you and hearing your excerpts from your book. We look forward to reading it! You are a very lovely and gracious woman. Good luck to you.
Terri & Brian

It was so nice meeting you tonight at the Ocean County Library.
You are an amazing woman with so much to give, and you truly inspire me. I hope you continue to spread your beauty among many people with your OWN individuality. (I will always be there to back you up with those "Dylan Nuts")
Hopefully you got a chance to listen to my work. Maybe one day we can meet again. Until then, you have my E-Mail to keep in touch!
Thank you again
Kacie