Bob Dylan a Finalist for Book Award

Bob Dylan, the unofficial poet laureate of the rock ‘n’ roll generation, has now been officially placed alongside such literary greats as Philip Roth and Adrienne Rich, not to mention biographers of Shakespeare and Willem de Kooning. All were among nominees announced Saturday for the National Book Critics Circle prizes.

Dylan, whose memoir “Chronicles, Volume One” was a favorite with reviewers and readers, is among the finalists in the biography/autobiography category. His competition includes two acclaimed bestsellers: Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton and Stephen Greenblatt’s biography of Shakespeare, “Will in the World.” Also nominated were John Guy’s “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart” and “De Kooning: An American Master,” by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan.

Virtually all literary efforts by rock stars, from the Kinks’ Ray Davies to the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, are laughed off by critics, but Dylan has been praised for an unusually rich and engaging book, in which he writes passionately about such influences as Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson and recalls his years as a young singer-songwriter in Greenwich Village.