6 LIFE BOB DYLAN
INTRODUCTION
Nobel ManT
he unorthodox selection of Bob Dylan as the 2016 recipient of the Nobel Prize in
Literature was bound to cause controversy. He became the first American to win
the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993 and, more significantly, he became the first
songwriter, from any country, to win it ever.Although there had been a quiet groundswell for
Dylan-as-Nobelist over the years—supported in part by
university academics who teach his lyrics in their class-
rooms—many within the literary community squirmed.
What about Philip Roth? What about Don DeLillo? What
about...? The novelist Irvine Welsh derided the Dylan
selection as an “ill-conceived nostalgia award.” The poet
Natalie Diaz wondered why the late Bob Marley never
got considered. Some writers groused about ancil-
lary things: Dylan is rich and famous enough already!
He doesn’t need it! Or, Song lyrics aren’t really literature!
More than one writer suggested that Dylan follow the
path of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who in 1964 was
awarded the Nobel but refused to accept it.
Yet many others, indeed the heavy bulk of the public
commenters, were thrilled at the choice—both in admi-
ration of Dylan’s writing and also because the commit-
tee had shown a willingness to buck tradition and test
institutional bias. At the vaunted Swedish Academy the
times were a-changing. “The frontiers of literature keep
widening,” Salman Rushdie told Britain’s Guardian in
2016, while lauding Dylan as a personal inspiration.
“It’s exciting that the Nobel Prize recognizes that.” Billy
Collins, America’s former poet laureate, gave his bless-
ing to Dylan’s Nobel. Songwriters cheered for one of
the own. (“Holy mother of god,” wrote Rosanne Cash.)
Barack Obama tweeted his congratulations.
Dylan stood by impassively, letting all the fuss
blow in the wind. He didn’t bother to respond to
the Academy’s call informing him of their choice.
(“Impolite and arrogant,” a committee member griped.)
He played concerts in Tulsa, Las Vegas, Phoenix,Albuquerque, and El Paso—even now, at nearly 80,
Dylan is frequently on tour—without mentioning the
Nobel to the crowd. A note acknowledging he’d won
the award went up as a short aside on his website but
then was taken down. Weeks went by before Dylan said
anything publicly at all. When he finally did, he told a
reporter that he would attend the award ceremony, “If
at all possible.” Later he said he didn’t think he’d make
it there after all. Dylan being Dylan.A
ccording to the official release, Dylan was
named literature’s 113th Nobel laureate for,
“having created new poetic expressions within
the great American song tradition.” The Swedish Acad-
emy’s permanent secretary at the time, Sara Danius,
compared Dylan to Homer and Sappho and said that
reaching the decision had not been difficult. “We’re
really giving it to Bob Dylan as a great poet—that’s the
reason we awarded him the prize,” said Danius, who
died in late 2019. “He’s a great poet in the great English
tradition, stretching from Milton and Blake onward.
And he’s a very interesting traditionalist in a highly
original way. Not just the written tradition but also the
oral one; not just high literature but also low literature.”
High or low, literature—or rather what we might
mean by it—is not easy to define. Merriam-Webster has
it simply as: “written works... that are considered to be
very good and to have lasting importance,” a measure
by which the writing not only of Bob Dylan, William
Faulkner, Alice Munro, and every other laureate clearly
qualifies but also such works as, say, the Guinness Book
of World Records, Mad magazine, and the 2020 Chevy01-07 LIFE_Bob Dylan 2020 Front.indd 6 FINAL 1/13/20 4:12 PM