Why Bob Dylan Matters [Revised Edition]

“Masterful, fun, passionate, learned, profound, and there’s nothing like it. Thomas shows why Dylan deserves his Nobel–and how he hearkens back to, and enlists, the classics. Fantastic reading, full of gems.” - Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University“At last an expert classicist gets to grips with Bob Dylan. Richard Thomas takes us from Dylan’s high school Latin club to his haunting engagement with Ovid and Homer in recent albums. Thomas carefully argues that Dylan’s poetry deserves comparison with Virgil’s–and Thomas, senior professor of Latin at Harvard and author of some of the most influential modern studies of Virgil, should know!” - Mary Beard“A highly informed, yet intimately personal celebration of one of our most important living writers.” - NPR“A nimble gloss on Dylan’s lyric genius.” - USA Today“A masterstroke of literary detective work … and an exciting examination of an artist’s enigmatic mind.” - Booklist (starred review)

Richard F. Thomas is George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics at Harvard University, a Bob Dylan expert, and the creator of a freshman seminar at Harvard on Bob Dylan.