Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize for Literature

The family of William Golding congratulate Bob Dylan and the Swedish Academy on a great choice!

The 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to musician Bob Dylan ‘for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition’. There has been some controversy over the award to Dylan, rather than to a more traditional writer, however it is highly likely that Golding would have been in favour of Dylan as a recipient, due to the poetic style of Dylan’s work.

There was some controversy when Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1983, as this article from Rolling Stone touches upon. One of the judges felt that Golding was a ‘little too nice’ for his taste but it is likely that this particular judge was against the award to Golding because of his popularity and huge readership. Golding’s work can hardly be described as ‘nice’! The Nobel Committee gave the award to Golding ‘for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today’.