11th Street at 7th Avenue
Continue west on West 10th and then turn right on Greenwich Avenue until you reach 7th Avenue.
Dylan’s Death
St. Vincent’s Hospital is straight up 11th Street from the White Horse Tavern, Dylan’s favourite New York bar. The myth is that Dylan died as a result of a drinking bout in the White Horse Tavern, when he declared to Liz Reitell back at the Hotel Chelsea “I’ve had 18 straight whiskies. I think that’s a record.” The truth is more complex.
When he arrived in New York on 19 October 1953 for his 4th tour, he was already desperately ill, yet seemed to have no desire to curtail his drinking or smoking. He was becoming increasingly dependent on medication, suffering blackouts, and his behaviour was erratic.
On Tuesday, 3 November, he wept in his bedroom at the Chelsea, told Liz Reitell that he wanted to die and “go to the garden of Eden.” At 2 am he left for the White Horse, boasted about the whiskies on his return, slept until mid-morning, then went back and had two glasses of beer. Dr. Milton Feltenstein, Liz Reitell’s doctor, was called to the Chelsea 3 times that day. His 4th summoning resulted in Dylan’s being rushed to St. Vincent’s where he was admitted at 1:58 am.
Caitlin arrived at Idlewild Airport on Sunday morning, asking “Well, is the bloody man dead or alive?” She broke down when she saw Dylan, dismayed the nurses by smoking near the oxygen tent and threatening Dylan’s breathing in a loving embrace, and in her deep despair began to abuse and attack Brinnin and the hospital staff. She was put in a strait-jacket, taken to the Rivercrest Mental Institution on Long Island, and later wrote, “I was possessed of 10,000 ravaging demons. My madness: an untutored broken heart.”
Dylan died at lunchtime on 9 November 1953, while a nurse was giving him a bed bath. Poet John Berryman was the only other person present.
