How Many Roads - by Scott Peeples (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Exploring Bob Dylan's career, recordings, and life to the present day, a portrait of an artist constantly seeking freedom and artistic control.

How Many Roads chronicles Bob Dylan's rise from apprenticeships in Minneapolis cafés and Greenwich Village folk clubs to international stardom as a breathtakingly original songwriter and singer. Scott Peeples follows Dylan through decades of radical shifts in his writing, recording, and performing styles, from the intimate lo-fi Basement Tapes to the musical collage art and apocalyptic blues of the twenty-first century. Spanning Dylan's entire career, How Many Roads illuminates Dylan's deep respect for tradition alongside his artistic restlessness, a combination that extends into his prose writing, filmmaking, and visual art. Weaving lucid analyses of Dylan's major albums and live performances into a briskly paced biographical narrative, Peeples offers newcomers and Dylan diehards alike a fresh perspective on the most compelling and challenging popular performer of our time.

Review Quotes

"How Many Roads was impossible to put down, the narrative's insights and perspectives flowed seamlessly. Peeples's meticulous research is evident in the rich details, narratives, and reflections on the poet and musician Bob Dylan. This biography is as good as it gets."

--Javon Jackson, musician, composer, and director of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz Studies at the University of Hartford

"The world of Dylan scholarship seems to have been designed to keep outsiders out--Dylanologists talking to other Dylanologists in their secret Dylan lingo. How Many Roads could not be more different. Peeples brings new energy and insights to this often-rehearsed story. You don't need to be a Dylan nerd to be welcomed here (though you might well be one by the time you leave). I enjoyed every moment of it."

--Kevin Dettmar, editor of "The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan" and author of "Punk in 50 Pieces: Punk Rock, Post-Punk, New Wave, and the Five Years that Changed Popular Music Forever"

"This is one of the best Dylan biographies I've read. Peeples avoids pitfalls and overreaches in scaling the elusive peak of Mount Dylan--his book is neither hagiography nor hatchet job. This is a fair and balanced account, and Peeples should be commended for his impressive research, perceptive analysis, and well-paced road story about the unlikely odyssey of America's greatest living artist. Bob Dylan gathers no moss, and neither does How Many Roads."

--Graley Herren, professor of English at Xavier University, Cincinnati, and author of "Dreams and Dialogues in Dylan's 'Time Out of Mind'"

About the Author

Scott Peeples is professor of English at the College of Charleston, South Carolina. His previous books include The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City and The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe.