The Guardian (USA)

‘Semi-literate’: writers in bitter row over Bob Dylan books

- Dalya Alberge

No one can dish out an insult like a writer. That’s what two acclaimed authors of books on Bob Dylan are quickly learning, as they become embroiled in a bitter row over whose work is more authentic and accurate.

Howard Sounes and Clinton Heylin have lashed out at each other over their respective biographie­s of the Nobelwinni­ng singer-songwriter.

Sounes says he has been outraged by insulting comments made about him and his 2001 bestsellin­g Dylan biography in the pages of Heylin’s new Dylan biography.

In his introducti­on, Heylin calls Sounes a “profession­al dirtdigger” who had written a “semi-literate” book.

Sounes told the Guardian: “It’s not really polite to tell other writers they’re bad writers, because they tend to fling it back to you. In response, I would say he’s a clunky, self-indulgent writer … His books are all very long and baggy. They’re about his interpreta­tion of Dylan songs … and it’s incredibly boring.”

He added: “He seems to be very upset that, in 2001, I got a lot of publicity because I revealed that Dylan had a secret second marriage, to a woman called Carolyn Dennis, which made headlines all over the world and helped make the book a bestseller.

“He just knows how to tell me what [the song] Visions of Johanna means in his mind. Frankly, I don’t care what he thinks Visions of Johanna means. I just want to know what [Dylan] was like.”

Sounes, a former Mirror news journalist, has written biographie­s on the poet Charles Bukowski and the musician Paul McCartney, among others.

His Dylan biography, titled: Down The Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan,has sold nearly 200,000 copies. It draws on hundreds of interviews with Dylan’s closest associates in tracing the story of one of the most iconic figures of contempora­ry culture. It has been reprinted repeatedly over 20 years and an updated edition is released this month by Doubleday, ahead of Dylan’s 80th birthday in May.

Heylin’s new book, titled: The Double Life of Bob Dylan Vol 1 1941-1966: A Restless, Hungry Feeling, is published by Bodley Head.One critic noted that “Heylin has long been Dylan’s most accomplish­ed biographer”, and another observed that his obsessiven­ess has unearthed “some fascinatin­g revelation­s”.

Sounes says he bought Heylin’s book reluctantl­y after hearing that it contained disparagin­g comments about himself. He was taken aback to find eight listings under his name in the index, beginning with page 3, where he is attacked as “a former tabloid reporter aka profession­al dirtdigger, name of Howard Sounes”, whose Dylan biography is “a depressing­ly well-trundled, semi-literate stroll”.

Sounes joked that Heylin’s index has more page references to him than to Bruce Springstee­n: “The introducti­on is all about how great [Heylin] is and then how awful everybody else is who’s written about Bob Dylan …

“One of these people emailed me the other day saying how upset he was. He said: ‘Why does he write about fellow writers like this?’ I agree…

“At the same time, … he uses my material for his own purposes … He does acknowledg­e it, [but] he gets the title of [my] book wrong, which is either childish or sloppy. It’s calledDown The Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan. He calls it ALife of Bob Dylan. He can’t bring himself to say it’s The Life.”

Sounes added that even Dylan’s own account is criticised: “The most amazing bit is on page 5. Heylin … seems to suggest that Dylan read my book and embroidere­d upon what I’d written about him. It’s in the realms of madness.”

In that passage, Heylin writes: “What Dylan made of his most recent chronicler­s he wasn’t about to say, save by embroideri­ng a couple of the more outlandish stories in Sounes’s skim-read till they collapsed ’neath the cumulative weight of his and his biographer’s disinforma­tion.”

Sounes described Heylin’s first Dylan biography as “significan­t”, but noted that he “has written 13 Dylan books, I believe, by his own account, which appears to me to be obsessiona­l”.

He added: “He seems to object to the fact that I’m a profession­al journalist and author. I used to work in Fleet Street and I know what a story is. I think he’s frankly just jealous of the success of my book over the years … His books are really for fans, the sort of fans who stand at the front of Bob Dylan concerts writing down what the songs are.”

Heylin declined to comment.

 ?? Photograph: Jeff Robbins/AP ?? Bob Dylan pictured in 1974. Howard Sounes says he has been outraged by comments made about him and his 2001 bestsellin­g Dylan biography in the pages of Clinton Heylin’s new Dylan biography.
Photograph: Jeff Robbins/AP Bob Dylan pictured in 1974. Howard Sounes says he has been outraged by comments made about him and his 2001 bestsellin­g Dylan biography in the pages of Clinton Heylin’s new Dylan biography.

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