Newly-minted Nobel laureate Bob Dylan—whose body of song lyrics has won him the most coveted and prestigious prize in letters—is a far cry from the traditional literary award-winner. A prolific songwriter whose lyrics have been acclaimed since his earliest work in the beginning of the 1960s, Dylan's discography is remarkable for both its quality and scope.
His bibliography, on the other hand, is significantly slimmer. And it's notably smaller than any other winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Dylan is the author of a single work prose poetry, a single work of adult nonfiction, various art books, and of five songs that have been adapted into six children's books. Here is a roundup of Publishers Weekly's reviews of books penned by Dylan—and a couple of stories we've published on books by and about him, for good measure.
Prose Poetry
- Tarantula by Bob Dylan (Macmillan, 1971)
Adult Nonfiction
- Chronicles, Volume 1 by Bob Dylan (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
Children's Picture Books
- Man Gave Names to All the Animals by Bob Dylan and illustrated by Scott Menchin (Harcourt Children's Books, 1999)
- Forever Young by Bob Dylan and illustrated by Paul Rogers (Atheneum/Seo, 2008)
- Man Gave Names to All the Animals by Bob Dylan and illustrated by Jim Arnosky (Sterling, 2010)
- Blowin’ in the Wind by Bob Dylan and illustrated by Jon J. Muth (Sterling, 2011)
- If Dogs Run Free by Bob Dylan and illustrated by Scott Campbell (S&S/Atheneum, 2013)
- If Not for You by Bob Dylan and illustrated by David Walker (S&S/Atheneum, 2016)
Coverage
- "Old Dylan Manuscript Draws New Interest" by Liz Thomson
- "Bob Dylan, for a New Generation" by Jeff Makos
CORRECTION: A previous iteration of this article omitted reference to Tarantula and Dylan's various art books.
