Chart of the winner and past winners of the Nobel prize in Literature.
Chart of the winner and past winners of the Nobel prize in Literature. (Good / TNS)

Bob Dylan was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday morning.

Dylan was awarded the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the American song tradition."

The American musician had long been rumored to be considered for the prize, but literary watchers considered his name among those in the running a novelty. He is the first American to win the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.

The room of watchers at the Swedish Academy seemed shocked by the announcement, one calling the decision "radical" when asking Sara Danils, permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, about the choice.

She compared Dylan to the poet Sappho, and then suggested the interviewer begin with Dylan's record "Blonde on Blonde."

It's notable that the musician was cited for his lyrics and music, broadening the definition of "literature" eligible for the award. The Nobel Prize in literature has typically gone to novelists, playwrights, poets and essayists. Often, the writers recognized are both at the top of their creative fields and have work that reflects a social conscience.

In that, Dylan fits.

Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Minnesota in 1941. His story _ by now well-known — includes traveling to New York, giving himself a new name, and embarking on a career in folk music. He became the voice of a generation with songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changing," which became anthems protesting the Vietnam War.

Dylan, whose lyrics could sometimes be inscrutable, was restless, however, and shocked his fans by going electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. His wide-ranging career has continued to this day; last weekend he performed at the Desert Trip concert in Indio, Calif., and will perform again this weekend.

"My music comes from two places: white hillbilly music — Roscoe Holcomb, stuff like that — and black blues — people like Son House, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson. These are the two elements I've always related to best, even now," Dylan told The Times' Robert Hilburn in 1978. "Then, all of a sudden in the '60s, I heard Woody Guthrie, which just blew my mind — what he did with a lyric. So, I stopped everything and learned his songs."

"That's what kept me going," Dylan continued. "I wanted to see how far I could take those elements, how well I could blend them together. Sometimes my music has gone a little to one side, but I'm always headed in the same direction."

The musician is the author of the books "Tarantula," a work of experimental poetry that was first officially published in 1971, and "Chronicles: Vol. 1," a relatively straightforward autobiography that hit bestseller lists when it was published in 2004.

"In the '60s Time, Newsweek — all those magazines — started calling me the 'father of the revolution,' 'the folk-rock king,' and all that stuff. That's when they created this 'mythical Bob Dylan' thing," Dylan said in the 1978 interview. "What they say has nothing to do with me. It didn't in the '60s and it doesn't now."

In 1985, Dylan talked to Hilburn again about his career. "When I see my name anywhere, it's (often) 'the '60s this or the '60s that.' I can't figure out sometimes if people think I'm dead or alive. But I'm not through ... ." the musician said. "I don't feel old, but I remember in my 20s (when) I'd think about people in their 30s as old. The thing I really notice now is time. Things used to go a lot slower ... . The days (now) go by so very fast. But I've never felt numb (about life). There is something about the chords, the sound of them that makes you feel alive. As long as you can play music, I believe, you'll feel alive."