Bob Dylan’s Nobel Lecture Signed, Sealed and Delivered

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Recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature inevitably see renewed interest in their work, and one publisher is banking on especially high regard for the first literal rock star to win it. Simon & Schuster today released a special edition of Mr. Dylan’s Nobel lecture, which runs to 23 pages. One hundred individually signed and numbered hardcover copies in slipcases are available for $2,500 each. (Next-day shipping is included.)

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The lecture is also available in a more routine edition for $16.99.

After winning the prize in October 2016, Mr. Dylan left many wondering if he would ever deliver the lecture that historically accompanies the honor. The singer did not attend the prize ceremony last December, and the Nobel Foundation released his acceptance speech on June 5. The speech has to be delivered within six months of the official ceremony for the honoree to receive the cash prize of about $900,000.

In the speech, Mr. Dylan talked about the way he was influenced by musicians like Buddy Holly and Leadbelly, and about books “that have stuck with me ever since I read them way back in grammar school, including “Moby-Dick,” “All Quiet on the Western Front” and the “Odyssey.” (A week after Mr. Dylan issued the speech, Andrea Pitzer on Slate suggested that some of the singer’s analysis of “Moby-Dick” was appropriated from the study-guide website SparkNotes.)

A year after Mr. Dylan’s groundbreaking Nobel victory, Simon & Schuster has also published “100 Songs,” which collects the lyrics to a selection of Mr. Dylan’s work, and an updated edition of “Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews,” edited by Jonathan Cott, a contributing editor for Rolling Stone.

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