Between the exploratory shout of Bringing It All Back Home and the enchanting excess of Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited stands as the most defining moment not only for Dylan's career but also for the evolution of music in the mid-1960s.

However, beyond its historical significance, Highway 61 stands out mainly due to its unwavering emotional impact. Few songwriters before or after Dylan have combined the intensely personal with the unconstrainedly universal so effectively – and in this book, Mark Polizzotti sheds light on both the period of the album's release and its timeless songs, as well as the artist Bob Dylan himself.

Mark Polizzotti is a writer, translator of French literature, and the editorial director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.