Nobel committee still can’t reach Bob Dylan
No ‘direct contact’ yet made with new Nobel winner Dylan.
The winner of the literature prize is on tour in the U.S., hasn’t responded to Swedish Academy.
Nearly a week after Bob Dylan was named the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, no one knows how he feels about the pres- tigious award not even the Nobel judges.
The Swedish Academy, which bestows the annual honor, says it hasn’t been able to reach Dylan since the award was announced last Thursday.
haven’t established direct contact with Bob Dylan yet, but I have spoken to one of his closest associates,” the academy’s permanent sec- retary, Sara Danius, said in an email Tuesday.
The academy hopes he will accept the invitation to collect his award at the annual Nobel ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10.
“It would be delightful if Dylan wanted to come to Stockholm in December, but if he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t want to,” Danius said.
She noted that literature laureates have skipped the ceremony before. Elfriede Jelinek stayed home in 2004, citing a social phobia. Harold Pinter and Alice Munro missed the ceremony in 2005 and 2013, respectively, due to health issues.
Only two people have declined a Nobel Prize in literature. Boris Pasternak did so under pressure from Soviet authorities in 1958, and Jean-Paul Sartre, who declined all official honors, turned it down in 1964.
Dylan, who is currently on tour in the U.S., hasn’t mentioned the Nobel Prize during his concerts since the announcement.
As of Tuesday, his official webpage made no mention of the prize except in the “books” section, where a post dated Oct. 17 about his lyrics collection “The Lyrics: 1961-2012” noted in all caps that he was a Nobel Prize winner.
Dylan has accepted numer- ous awards over the years, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for which he attended a White House ceremony in 2012. But he also has a history of taking his time acknowledging honors. In 2013, he became the first rock star voted into the elite American Academy of Arts and Letters, which made him an honorary member. According to executive direc- tor Virginia Dajani, the acad- emy informed Dylan of the decision — through his manager, Jeff Rosen — in January of that year. Only in May 2013 did Dylan respond.
If he travels to Stockholm for the pomp and circum- stance of the Nobel ceremony, it won’t be the first time he has received an award from Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf. In 2000, Dylan collected the Polar Music Prize from him.