Bob Dylan Has My Book

Justin Wolfers has a Dylan-related post at Marginal Revolution that has been sending some traffic my way. Although I've been a lifelong Dylan fan, I've only seen him in concert once--at the legendary Concert for Bangla Desh in Madison Square Garden back in 1971. I've figured that after seeing him at the peak of his powers, it really wouldn't do to repeat the experience.

After I finished writing a book on immigration in 1997/1998, I searched around for a title that would evoke what I was trying to say and quickly settled on Heaven's Door. I can't recall how I reached that decision, but it was probably made after some random event made me think of Dylan's classic Knocking on Heaven's Door.

I wanted to start the book with a 4-line quote from the song. Princeton University Press tried to get permission, but the song's publishers came back with a financial demand that would have exceeded the book's entire budget by a huge amount. My editor suggested that I make a personal appeal to Dylan's management, explain that we are dealing with an academic book, and request a greatly reduced publishing fee.

After a phone conversation, the head of the management office politely told me that this type of exception would have to be discussed and required a decision at the very highest level--which, in the conversation's context, seemed to be Bob himself. I figured this was the standard brushoff and that we would never hear from them again. But, to my surprise, within days we had approval to use the song's lyrics at a nominal fee--as long as we also sent a copy of the published book to Mr. Dylan.

And I just know that somewhere in one of Bob's offices or homes there lies a well-weathered and carefully annotated copy of Heaven's Door.