Yes, at last - the official North American publication date! And by serendipitous coincidence, it's also the day I finished writing the text of Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan in 1999.
Which set me finding a couple of other anniversaries around now... coming up on Monday the 26th it'll be exactly 25 years since the publication date of the second edition of my Dylan book - the one with the title reversed, ie The Art of Bob Dylan: Song & Dance Man. And the 28th, on which Dylan is performing in Bournemouth UK (and I'm doing a signing at Nunnington Hall, North Yorkshire), is the 80th anniversary of Robert Shelton's birth.
This is the photo of him from the Encyclopedia. It was taken on Great Malvern railway station in 1974, when he came to visit me. He'd been the first Dylan-connected person to phone me out of the blue with encouragement when the first edition of Song & Dance Man came out: the first person I think I'd ever met who knew Bob Dylan.
Congratulations on the book's publication Michael, I'm looking forward to getting lost in it over the coming months. Nice pic of Mr Shelton - I understand there's something of an archive of his notes and papers housed at the University of Liverpool. I was wondering if you have seen any of this, and whether you know if anyone has any plans to make his currently unpublished work available? I, for one, would love to read an extended version of his 'No Direction Home' biography.
ReplyDeleteAndy, I've been told that the Shelton Archive at the University of Liverpool's Institute for Popular Music has been moved elsewhere - but I don't know where and I don't know who administers his literary estate. But the Da Capo Press published a new edition of his Dylan biography "No Direction Home" in July 2003, so I can only suggest you ask them, and/or the Institute at Liverpool University, for further info. There is also (or was, anyway) an archive of Shelton's materials at the Experience Project in Seattle. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
ReplyDeleteMichael, thanks for the info and good luck with the book.
ReplyDeleteCongrats. It must be amazing to have it finally out there. Looking forward to picking it up here in Australia somehwhere.
ReplyDeleteDear ELW, this is proving a hard one to answer. I'm waiting to hear back from Continuum, the publisher, and hope to get you definite information within another 24 hours. Thanks for your patience.
ReplyDeleteUpdate to ELW: Hi there. Now I can give you an answer: you can buy a signed copy by writing to Ben Sampson at ben@continuum-books.com, giving him the address for delivery and he can duly sort it out with you. Or to speed things up you can phone him on 212-953-5858 ext 108. Thanks again.
ReplyDelete>quotation marks were part of the title in the case of "Love and Theft", because it was taken directly from another work's title
ReplyDeleteYou don't know that. I don't know that.