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| Bob Dylan, 2010 (Wikipedia) |
By Jim Heffernan
The Swedish Academy has been having a hard time personally
contacting reclusive Duluth native Bob Dylan to tell him he has been awarded
the Nobel Prize for literature, according to news reports. At this writing he
has not personally acknowledged the great honor.
The story of how that other Nobel literature laureate with
Duluth connections, author Sinclair Lewis, was informed of his selection is
well documented, and it’s quite amusing.
It was described at the Sinclair Lewis Interpretive Center
in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, the author’s birthplace. I visited the now closed
center – as well as Lewis’ early family home there – several years ago and
reviewed in one of the offerings just how the famous author learned he’d won
the literature Nobel in 1930, the first American so honored.
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| Sinclair Lewis, 1930 |
Who knows how Nobel officials will eventually contact Dylan
directly, maybe with a simple telephone call. It was a simple telephone call
that informed Lewis of the honor, and he had a hard time believing it was
legitimate.
As every schoolchild knows, the Nobel prizes are selected by
a committee in Sweden and awarded in Stockholm. (Exception: the Peace Prize is
awarded in Oslo, Norway.)
When Lewis was selected, the Swedish Nobel authorities
notified that Scandinavian nation’s consulate in Chicago and instructed
personnel there to contact Lewis and inform him of the honor, according to the
material at the Lewis center.
The Chicago-based Swedish diplomat who contacted Lewis by
telephone had a strong Swedish accent when he spoke English. When Lewis was
told by the caller that he’d won the Nobel Prize in literature he simply didn’t
believe it. He thought it was one of his friends putting on a Swedish accent to
pull his leg.
Lewis’ response was the same as that of any one of us who
might receive a crank call, calling out the caller to admit it was a hoax.
I have conjured up how the conversation might have gone,
with the familiar Swedish accent of the caller, and Lewis’ reaction:
SWEDISH CALLER – Mr. LOOis, this is the Svedish consul
calling from Chicago to inform you the good neuse that you have yust vun the
Nobel Prize in literature.
LEWIS – Is that so. Well thank you very much, friend. Now
who is this? Elmer? Martin? George? Who’re you trying to kid? I can see right
through that fake Swedish accent.
CALLER – No, sir, this really is the Svedish consulate
calling to tell you you have vun the Nobel Prize. I yust hope you believe me
when I say this.
LEWIS (ridiculing the caller) – Ya sure, you betcha. C’mon,
who is this?
And so on and so forth.
It took Lewis awhile to settle down and realize it wasn’t a
crank call.
It really is an unlikely coincidence having two Nobel Prize
winners in the same field with strong connections to Duluth. But for the
record, neither Dylan nor Lewis lived here for very long. Born in Duluth in May
1941, Robert Allen Zimmerman (Dylan’s original name) resided here with his
family until 1947 when he was six years old, moving to Hibbing that year.
Lewis bought his mansion at 26th Avenue East and
Second Street in 1944 but only stuck around the Zenith City until 1946,
presumably within a few months of when the Zimmerman family moved to Hibbing.
Duluth has honored Dylan with special commemorative manhole
covers. It does nothing to honor Lewis for his association with the city. Most
people around here have forgotten it, or never knew.
Links...
NY Times story (10-13-2016) about Dylan's Nobel award: read HERE.
Duluth Budgeteer News column (1-13-2013) describing Sinclair Lewis book written in Duluth Mansion: read HERE
John G Williams House, located at 2601 E. 2nd St., Duluth MN where Sinclair Lewis lived:
read HERE
Zenith City Online post about Sinclair Lewis in Duluth: read HERE
NobelPrize.org post about Sinclair Lewis & Nobel Prize Award for Literature in 1930: read HERE.
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