Bob Dylan Primer: Dig into Works by the Newly Named Nobel Prize Winner

October 13, 2016

Bob Dylan joins the ranks of previous American laureates in literature--Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck--with the honor of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2016, "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." On the occasion of this award, we offer a Dylan primer.

Here are five albums to get you started.

You can also check out Dylan's complete discography on Freegal.

Have trouble understanding the words as sung by Dylan? Here are a few recordings performed by others.

Critiques, appreciations, interviews, portraits, encyclopedias and Dylanologists' musings are numerous, but to date there is just a single autobiography:

You can also enjoy Bob Dylan on the screen.

Masked and Anonymous is a feature film co-starring Jeff Bridges and John Goodman.

D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 documentary of the '65 Dylan tour:

Martin Scorsese's 2005 documentary of the tumultuous years of Dylan's career between 1961 and 1966:

Six characters recreate different stages in Dylan's career:

Three easy books to share with your little ones:

"The only thing I knew how to do was to keep on keeping on." -Bob Dylan

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