Robert Shelton (critic) his Dylan biography, "No Direction Home, The Life and Music of Bob Dylan" which was finally published in 1986, after years of arguments with publishers about the style and length of the work. Shelton's intention from the outset was to write a serious cultural study, not a showbiz biography; as a result, he later said his life's work had been "abridged over troubled waters". The title is taken from the lyric of Dylan's hit single, "Like a Rolling Stone". The same title, "No Direction Home", was used by Martin Scorsese for his 2005 documentary film about Dylan's career from the
The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan is a book published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press intended to analyze the work of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It is the fourth book of "Cambridge Companion to American Studies". This book is edited by Kevin J. Dettmar and contains seventeen essays, each written by a different person. The whole book is divided in two sections. The first one ("Perspectives"), containing nine essays, attempts to describe different sides of Dylan's work. The next section ("Landmark Albums") describes eight landmark Dylan albums. Kieran Curran of "PopMatters" gave the