The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2016 is awarded to Bob Dylan (USA)
“for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
Dylan has recorded a large number of albums revolving around topics like the social conditions of man, religion, politics and love. The lyrics have continuously been published in new editions, under the title Lyrics. As an artist, he is strikingly versatile; he has been active as painter, actor, and scriptwriter.
The 75-year-old Bob Dylan was born on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota. He grew up in a Jewish middleclass family in the city of Hibbing. Dylan moved to New York in 1961 and began to perform in clubs and cafés in Greenwich Village. He met the record producer John Hammond with whom he signed a contract for his debut album, called Bob Dylan (1962).
In the following years he recorded a number of albums which have had a tremendous impact on popular music: Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited in 1965, Blonde On Blonde in 1966 and Blood On The Tracks in 1975.
His productivity continued in the following decades, resulting in masterpieces like Oh Mercy (1989), Time Out Of Mind (1997) and Modern Times (2006).
The Nobel comes with a prize of 8 million Swedish kronor. The literature prize is given for a lifetime of writing rather than for a single work.
The prize has gone to an American after a gap of 23 years, novelist Toni Morrison won it for the US in 1993.
