About the Author

In the course of his forty-year career, Dave Van Ronk recorded more than two dozen albums, toured on four continents, was nominated for two Grammys, and received an ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award.Coauthor Elijah Wald wrote the acclaimed study of the myth, music, and life of blues legend Robert Johnson, Escaping the Delta. He also wrote the biography Josh White: Society Blues as well as Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas. A musician and journalist, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Praise for "The Mayor of MacDougal Street"
NewYorker.com, 9/30/13
[A] wonderful memoir.
"Slate, " 12/2/13
Your best guide when it comes to Inside Llewyn Davisapart from what follows, of courseis Van Ronk s posthumous memoir, "The Mayor of MacDougal Street."
"New York Times," 11/30/13
[A] sharp cantankerous memoir.
The Culture Trip, 4/1/16
Gives the play-by-play for a musical movement that was humble in origin, but huge in populous fervor. Woody Guthrie; Joan Baez; Pete Seeger; Richie Havens; Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary; plus dozens more, they all live and breathe within these pagesOne of folk s unsung heroes, Van Ronk mixes poetry and revolution, rolled into a posthumously released autobiography as much a history of the Village, and the folk venues that made it famous, as the life story of its Mayor.
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NewYorker.com, 9/30/13

"[A] wonderful memoir."



"Slate, " 12/2/13

"Your best guide when it comes to Inside Llewyn Davis--apart from what follows, of course--is Van Ronk's posthumous memoir, "The Mayor of MacDougal Street"."



"New York Times", 11/30/13

"[A] sharp cantankerous memoir."


"New York Review of Books"blog, 12/16/2013

"The movie extensively mines Van Ronk's remarkable posthumous memoir"The Mayor of MacDougal Street"(seamlessly compiled from interviews by Elijah Wald; Da Capo, 2005) for scenes, anecdotes, and details of background, and its protagonist, Llewyn Davis (played by Oscar Isaac) sings songs closely associated with Van Ronk."


"Seattle Times, "12/15/2013

"[A] delightful, keenly-observed, cantankerous autobiography...which, if you love 'Inside Llewyn Davis' you owe it to yourself to read."


"Paste Magazine", 12/12/2013

"[An] acclaimed and enjoyable memoir."


NewYorker.com, 1/22/2014

""The Mayor of MacDougal Street" is one of the dozen best books ever written about a New York life and time: dense with wisdom, humor, judgment, and an amazingly vivid recreation of the rites and rituals and characters of a whole lost world and scene."

NewYorker.com, 9/30/13
"[A] wonderful memoir."

"Slate, " 12/2/13
"Your best guide when it comes to Inside Llewyn Davis--apart from what follows, of course--is Van Ronk's posthumous memoir, "The Mayor of MacDougal Street"."

"New York Times", 11/30/13
"[A] sharp cantankerous memoir."