Published: January 16, 2011 - 5:59 am
Rock legend Bob Dylan has a new book deal—with his old publisher, Simon & Schuster.
The house, which brought out the singer-songwriter's 2004 best-seller Chronicles: Volume One, has reached a deal with literary agent Andrew Wylie for six books, according to several industry insiders. The books include two follow-ups to Chronicles and a collection of riffs from Mr. Dylan's radio show on Sirius XM.
The deal came after Mr. Wylie had spent months trying to drum up interest in the project among other publishers (see Crain's, Nov. 22), despite Simon & Schuster's insistence that it had the rights to any Chronicles sequels. “Wylie's contention was that S&S didn't own the "memoir,' because Chronicles was "nonfiction stories' from his life and not a memoir,” said the editor. But no house would bite because of the potential for a lawsuit.
Mr. Wylie had been looking for an eight-figure offer, according to another editor, who didn't know the deal's final value. The agent did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. A Simon & Schuster spokesman declined to comment.
"Non-fiction stories" and not a memoir! What an incredible piece of work.
ReplyDelete6 books? I'd love the two sequels to Chronicles, which are well over-due, we could skip the "collection of riffs from his radio show." That leaves three more books. I'd love if he finally brought out "Ho Chi Minh in Harlem", or some other work of fiction or poetry. It'd be nice if he extended himself in this form, rather than release some coffee-table retrospective...
I'm not sure the report meant to imply that all six books are coming from Dylan; it more or less does say that but it's quite possible that they meant that Andrew Wylie was selling them six books including the three by Dylan.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael, that's right.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I often wonder about the Ho Chi Minh in Harlem book. I wonder how many type-written scraps of paper he has lying around for this one. First mentioned in the Biograph notes, and never heard of since. Maybe he was riffing then, too, and there was no book? I think he could write a marvellous fiction, if he set his mind to it...
More Chronicles - good, there's never anything wrong with re-reading the likes of the wonderful prose of RLS and Jack London ;)
ReplyDeleteOther 3 books? mmmm- a children's book, a collection of sleeve notes and a cookery book should do it...if not three separate volumes of slightly different to the one we have of Tarantulas...
PS It did mean to imply (or should have) that all six titles are by Dylan.
Homer
"This weekend I tagged along on a wonderful trip to Woodstock, New York with David Kinney, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who is working on a new book on Bob Dylan for Simon & Schuster.[...]David’s book will probably be published in 2012."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.beachamjournal.com/journal/2011/01/a-weekend-in-woodstock.html
I wonder if this is part of the deal?
Kieran
ReplyDeleteYes, I too was fascinated by Bob's long-ago reference to "Ho Chi Minh in Harlem". Who knows whether it was an idea on a whim or something more substantial in his mind (or on his typewriter).
Tricia, I don't think so. David Kinney came to one of our Dylan Discussion Weekends - he said the book is about Dylan fans, and that was why he came - and he knew he had a book deal ages ago now; my strong impression was that it was not linked to any other deals for other Dylan books.
Tricia, the David Kinney book is not part of the deal. The six book deal is for books authored by Dylan (yes, I see the irony) Mr. Kinney's book is his all his own project as Michael suggests.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Bob mention something about Ho Chi Minh being in New York in the pages of Chronicles?
ReplyDeleteMZ
There's a fine line between "stories from his life" and a memoir. Sort of like the fine line between fiction and nonfiction, at least to Dylan.
ReplyDeleteYes, Michael is correct, my project is a separate deal. It will look at Dylan via the global community that has grown up around him: writers and critics, musicians and academics, tour-goers and collectors.
ReplyDelete