The archive of beat poet Peter Orlovsky has been acquired by the Ransom Center.

Orlovsky spent 40 years as Allen Ginsberg’s companion, and the collection includes a treasure trove of unpublished writings about his experiences with the Beat Generation. In the image embedded above, you can see his notes during Bob Dylan‘s historic Rolling Thunder Revue. Check it out:

Orlovsky’s collection comprises manuscripts, journals and notebooks, correspondence, tape recordings, photographs and other personal documents, including unpublished poetry and prose works. Around the time that Orlovsky met Ginsberg, he began to keep a journal, filling more than 140 notebooks before his death. Some of Orlovsky’s published poems appear in the journals, yet none of the journals has been published.

Johnny Depp is teaming up with HarperCollins to launch a new imprint called that will publish a book on Bob Dylan and a previously unpublished novel by folk legend Woody Guthrie. The imprint will go by the name Infinitum Nihil, the same name as Depp’s production company.

“I pledge, on behalf of Infinitum Nihil, that we will do our best to deliver publications worthy of peoples’ time, of peoples’ concern, publications that might ordinarily never have breached the parapet,” said Depp in a statement. “For this dream realized, we would like to salute HarperCollins for their faith in us and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship together.”

The Associated Press broke the news and had more details about the imprint’s books. Check it out: “The Dylan book is scheduled for 2015. Dylan and [Douglas] Brinkley also will collaborate on the editing and publication of a previously announced novel by one of Dylan’s heroes, folk musician Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967. The novel, ‘House of Earth,’ was completed by Guthrie in 1947 but was only recently discovered. It’s scheduled for January.”

As literary types speculate about this year’s nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature before the official announcement, UK gamblers are still adjusting the odds and trying to predict a winner of the prestigious prize.

According to the betting site Ladbrokes, Japan’s Haruki Murakami still leads with 7/1 odds. However, Bob Dylan the next favorite with 10/1 odds. Dutch novelist Cees Nooteboom and Chinese author Mo Yan have also risen to the top with 12/1 odds. Cormac McCarthy and Philip Roth both have 16/1 odds and Alice Munro has 20/1 odds. Who will you place your bet on?

Nevertheless, literary blogger Michael Orthofer reminds us that Dylan is a bad bet: “it’s easy money for them — anyone who bets on Dylan is basically just handing the money over to them, zero risk to Ladbrokes.”

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has pulled Jonah Lehrer‘s Imagine: How Creativity Works after the author admitted to fabricating Bob Dylan quotes. Until December 31, the company will refund readers for the book.

If you want a refund from the hardcover book, you can take the book back to the bookstore where you bought it. Digital book  buyers must “submit requests to the retailer from which the eBook was originally purchased.”

In addition, you can mail the book directly to the publisher along with a proof of purchase. The publisher will send you “$30 within 30 days of receipt of book ($26 for book, plus $4 to cover mailing charges).” Here is the address:

HMH
Attn: Trade Sales/KR
222 Berkeley St.
Boston, MA.  02116

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Malcolm Gladwell said “I am heartbroken” after hearing that Jonah Lehrer resigned from The New Yorker. Lehrer admitted that he had fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his book, Imagine: How Creativity Works.

While the WWD reporter wasn’t sure if Gladwell had read the Tablet essay that exposed the fabrication, WWD had this quote from Gladwell: “I am heartbroken. Jonah is a friend. He is a decent and sweet and hugely talented guy, and I cannot imagine what he is going through right now,”

The book has already sold 200,000 copies, but the publisher has stopped the presses. Links to Lehrer’s book have been removed at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

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Author Jonah Lehrer has resigned from his post at the New Yorker after confessing that he fabricated Bob Dylan quotes for his book, Imagine: How Creativity Works.  You can sample the Dylan section of the book at this Google Books link.

Lehrer confessed after journalist Michael Moynihan contacted him for a story in Tablet. According to The New York Times, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt “will halt shipment of physical copies of the book.”

The Times’ Media Decoder blog has a statement from Lehrer: “The quotes in question either did not exist, were unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes. But I told Mr. Moynihan that they were from archival interview footage provided to me by Dylan’s representatives. This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic. When Mr. Moynihan followed up, I continued to lie, and say things I should not have said.”

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Bob Dylan‘s cover of “Friday” by Rebecca Black and our Best Book Editors on Twitter list topped our headlines in March 2011.

Welcome to GalleyCat’s annual year-end roundup of publishing headlines. It’s a chance to celebrate our good news and reflect on the bad news. Visit our Year in Review link as the series unfolds.

1. Friday Cover by Fake Bob Dylan Spawns YouTube Storytelling
2. Amanda Hocking Scores Four-Book Deal
3. Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 Cover Revealed By Chip Kidd
4. Dorchester Publishing Boycott Launched

Tracey Guest, director of publicity at Simon & Schuster, has been promoted to vice president, director of publicity.

Guest has been with Simon & Schuster since 1998. In her time at the publisher, she has worked on a wide range of books by authors including: Hunter S. Thompson, Bob Woodward, Don Rickles, Mike Birbiglia, Bob Dylan, Paula Deen and Sylvia Nasar. Guest’s most recent publicity campaign was for Jaycee Dugard‘s bestseller, A Stolen Life. Guest began her career at Dutton/Plume in 1991.

In an email, Adam Rothberg, SVP, corporate communications at Simon & Schuster, wrote: “Through it all, Tracey has demonstrated excellent judgment, warmth, spirit, and an ability to make good things happen for our authors in all forms of media.”

The great storyteller and singer Bob Dylan turned 70 years old last month, generating a mountain of ‘Best Bob Dylan Songs’ lists.

However, this GalleyCat editor couldn’t find a single list focused on Dylan’s legacy as a storyteller. Below, we’ve collected our ten favorite Dylan songs that tell a story.

Add your picks in the comments section–many of our picks focus on a particular part of Dylan’s career, so we are happy to add more.

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Hundreds of booksellers and publishing professionals flock to BEA every year looking for free books and galley copies.

Thanks to Copia, all our readers can enjoy a couple free BEA books. Until June 6th you can download a free eBook copy of Revolution in the Air – The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957–1973 and Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb. We also spotted some free crafty eBooks and resources at the conference. Follow this link to download those titles.

Here’s more about the Bob Dylan book: “Clinton Heylin has devoted his career to Bob Dylan’s work and presents here a comprehensive study of all of Dylan’s recording sessions. ‘A must for rabid fans.’–Seattle Times.”