BOB Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin has dismissed claims the musician was being "impolite and arrogant" for failing to publicly acknowledge that he has won this year's Nobel Prize for Literature.
It was announced on October 13 that the singer-songwriter, known for being uncomfortable in the spotlight, had won the accolade for having "created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
But since then, the committee says it has been unable to get hold of Dylan and the man himself has not acknowledged the prize publicly despite performing in Las Vegas on the evening of the announcement.
Last week, the musician's website removed its mention of the prize.
One can say that it is impolite and arrogant,” said Per Wastberg, who chairs the Nobel Committee for Literature 2016. “He is who he is.”
"We were aware that he can be difficult and that he does not like appearances when he stands alone on the stage," he said in a separate statement.
Mr Wastberg said the academy is still hopeful Dylan will attend the Nobel ceremony in December in Stockholm.
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After Mr. Dylan’s award was announced, Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said she did not know if Mr. Dylan would attend the award ceremony in December because she had not been able to get in touch with him.
Mr Wastberg told the newspaper that the committee would not try to contact him again.
“We have agreed not to lift a finger. The ball lies entirely on his half,” he said. “You can speculate as much as you want but we don’t.”
Mr Heylin, a longtime Dylan scholar does not believe that the musician will snub the ceremony.
"Dylan has accepted the Legion d'Honeur, an honorary doctorate from Princeton, an Oscar and a Golden Globe," he said. "I'd be very surprised if he were to refuse the Nobel Prize for Literature, if not for himself, for those who came before."
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Only one person has previously rejected the Nobel Prize in Literature - French author and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964.
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