A more significant model for that kind of self-creation, with its adjustment of the facts to match was surely Woody Guthrie, who did exactly that.

But in one sense it's what everybody does, most especially at times when we are breaking away into some new envuironment, for example, going to college, or getting in to a new relationship, or moving to a new part of the world, or taking up a new type of work in a different setting, or playing our music in a different environment. We emphasise some stuff, and we play down other stuff.

Some of us carry it a lot further than others, and Dylan clearly did, but what earthly need is there to get all heavy and judgemental about it?

This was how Dylan negotiated his way through pretty difficult and demanding times, and managed to produced some pretty good stuff along the way. As the saying goes "To hell with the begrudgers."