Why Bob Dylan Matters

By Richard F. Thomas,

Book cover of Why Bob Dylan Matters

Book description

A GUARDIAN AND INDEPENDENT BEST MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR

'At last an expert classicist gets to grips with Bob Dylan' Mary Beard

'Thomas's elegant, charming book offers something for everyone - not just the super-fans' Independent

When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan, the literary…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Why Bob Dylan Matters as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Who would have thought that the teenage Robert Zimmerman, later known as Bob Dylan, belonged to his high school Latin club? Richard Thomas, who found the evidence, was not so surprised.

A Professor of Ancient Greek and Roman poetry at Harvard and a long-standing fan, he has traced Dylan’s increasing use of classical allusions. The singing Nobel prizewinner’s favorite is Ovid, whose phrases he has used over 30 times in his lyrics. “Ancient footsteps are everywhere,” to quote his song “When I Paint My Masterpiece.”

Thomas’s book is personal and easy to read, casting new light on the enigmatic…

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Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

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