A Bob Dylan Book List

revised October 25, 2024
Developed for It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Reading): A Bob Dylan Book Club by Peter White & Annie Burkhart.
Click HERE for a printable PDF version of this list.
“Why are there so many Bob Dylan books, including one called “Oh, No, Not Another Bob Dylan Book” published over 30 years ago?”
Click HERE for 10 ingredients of an answer.

Categories of Bob Dylan Books
Click on the underlined categories below to see the book lists
See also NOTES at the end of the index

Belief, theology, philosophy, meanings
Song/album analysis
Tarantula
Place in culture, politics
Biography, often with song/album analysis
Authors with multiple titles!

Barker (An editor of Isis Magazine, a mix of biography, performances, analysis)
Gray (a mix of cultural context, song analysis, biography)
Heylin (a mix of biography and criticism)
Marcus (a mix of criticism and cultural context)
Markhorst (books on several albums and songs)
Shanks (These books may mark a new era in book-making: internet searches, recent & rapid publication]
Williams (focuses on performances)

Recording/music
On tour/performance
Bootlegs
Photography & overviews
Visual Art, Film
Interviews
Encounters
Fandom
Places
Fellow travelers
Books By Bob Dylan
Teaching Bob Dylan
Available on audible.com
Websites that list Dylan books

Greenwich Village, the Folk Scene, & the rise of Bob Dylan: a Curriculum (printable version!)

Note 1:  Publishers are not listed with the hopes that they can be easily found online.
Note 2: Dates may be misleading because they may be dates of reissue, with or without updates, and because some dates may be only for the issue date of audible versions rather than the original publication date.
Note 3: Like Dylan himself, the books don’t fit easily into categories!  And most books could be put in more than one category.  But there are so many books we wanted to supply a “way in” to this diversity.
Note 4: We avoided books that seemed promotional—these rehash old information, present seemingly no new research, and repeat well-known photos. These books seem exploitive of Dylan but not essential. Children’s books, lyric and song books, and unpublished dissertations and theses are not included. Only books available in English are listed.