HIBBING, Minn. - The Bob Dylan gold mine was at the bottom of the stairs, down in the cramped furnace room of a ranch-style house in Hibbing.
Surrounded by bookshelves and a file cabinet, B.
J. Rolfzen was sitting in his basement study, reading John Milton's "Paradise Lost." "How many people read Milton on Sunday morning?
" wondered University of Minnesota museum curator Colleen Sheehy, recalling her first encounter with Rolfzen three years ago.
Well, Dylan's former high school English teacher does. And he was sitting at the same desk where he graded the work of Robert Zimmerman, Hibbing High School class of 1959.
That desk and a paper by Dylan, analyzing characters in John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath," are part of "Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-66," an exhibit which opened Feb. 3 at the University of Minnesota's Weisman Art Museum.
"I can see Robert coming through the door in Room 204," said Rolfzen, 83, in a recent phone interview.
"He came there quietly every day. He was alone. He always sat the third seat from the door.
He always sat in the front row in front of the lectern. He never looked around. He was very attentive, very focused.
"
Rolfzen will attend the Weisman opening and read a poem he's written about his famous student. But it's the Dylan document from 1958, when he was a high-school junior, that fans will want to see. The 22-page paper includes a few misspelled words ("storys," "compair") and a note from Rolfzen: "I think that more could have been done with this, don't you?
" "I gave him a B," recalls the teacher, who used to hear Dylan's rock trio practicing in the Zimmermans' garage, and has seen a few Dylan concerts over the years. "I often tell for a joke that I'm going back to the high school and change that to an A."
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Why is an exhibit that's essentially historical — built around artifacts, recordings, vintage photos and films, and video interviews with Dylan himself — being presented at an art museum?
"We do a lot of interdisciplinary exhibitions," said Sheehy, who also curated the 2002 show "Springsteen: Troubadour of the Highway" at the Weisman. "I think it's really important that Dylan is looked upon as an artist, not just as a historical figure.
He is an artist of the highest caliber in whatever art form you want to talk about. "Dylan's American Journey" originated at Seattle's Experience Music Project in 2004, then traveled to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and New York's Morgan Library before winding up on the campus where Dylan once was a student.
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