Nobel Prize: 12 facts you don’t want to miss about Bob Dylan

By
Hawau Ahmed
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Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

The award comes with a cash prize of 8 million Swedish kronor, or just over $900,000.

Here are 12 interesting facts you need to know about the 75-year-old ‘Blowin in the Wind’ and ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’ hitmaker.

  1. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, USA and grew up in Hibbing.
  2. In May 1960, Dylan dropped out of college at the end of his first year. In January 1961, he travelled to New York City, to perform there and visit his musical idol Woody Guthrie.
  3. He was only 22 when he performed at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
  4. After reports of a motorcycle accident in 1966 near his home in Woodstock, Dylan withdrew from public life, yet he remained intensely fertile as a songwriter.
  5. Dylan identifies as a Christian and has released several albums of religiously inspired songs, but he was born into a Jewish family.
  6. Bob Dylan has recorded a large number of albums revolving around topics like the social conditions of man, religion, politics and love.
  7. Since 1994, Dylan has published six books of drawings and paintings and sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time.
  8. He has received numerous awards including 11 Grammys, a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
  9. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame.
  10. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 and in May 2012, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
  11. The singer has been married twice. First to Sara Lownds on November 22, 1965 divorcing her on June 29, 1977; then to Carolyn Dennis on June 4, 1986. Their marriage ended on October, 1992.
  12. He is the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature since the novelist, Toni Morrison, in 1993.

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