Nobel Prize in Literature

The announcement in October set off a debate about whether songs belonged in a literary prize, and Dylan made it stranger by staying silent for about two weeks; one academy member publicly called that silence rude. He eventually said he was honored but did not travel to the December ceremony in Stockholm, citing other commitments. Patti Smith sang "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" in his place, pausing emotionally partway through, and a short speech he had written was read at the banquet. He accepted the medal and diploma privately in Stockholm the following spring, while on tour. To collect the prize money he still had to deliver a lecture, which he did that June. The award placed him in a line of writers stretching back over a century.