Photo: Eddie Janssens / CC BY 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Suze Rotolo is one of those figures who gets remembered as a footnote in someone else's story, and that's honestly a little unfair. Yes, she's the woman huddled against Bob Dylan on the Freewheelin' cover, that iconic snowy West Village street shot — but she was so much more than a girlfriend frozen in a photograph. A painter, a printmaker, a political activist deep in the civil rights and anti-war movements of early-1960s Greenwich Village, she was by many accounts a genuine intellectual force on the young Dylan, introducing him to Brecht, Italian art, and left-wing politics at a formative moment. Her 2008 memoir A Freewheelin' Time is a warm, sharp-eyed portrait of that whole scene, written very much on her own terms. She deserves to be read for herself.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Suze Rotolo
- Name (Japanese)
- スーズ・ロトロ
- Reading
- すーず・ろとろ
- Born
- November 20, 1943 – February 25, 2011
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Scorpio / Goat
- Origin
- Sunnyside, New York, United States
- Occupation
- artist / visual artist / painter / writer
2. Background
- High school
- William Cullen Bryant High School
- University
- University of Perugia
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties | — |
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Suze Rotolo born?
November 20, 1943 – February 25, 2011.
Where is Suze Rotolo from?
Suze Rotolo is from Sunnyside, New York, United States.
What does Suze Rotolo do?
Suze Rotolo works as artist, visual artist, painter, writer.
What is Suze Rotolo known for?
Notable works include A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.
Artist — see all → · Visual artist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.