Tarantula (book)

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Tarantula
Recent paperback cover
Author Bob Dylan
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Novel, Experimental fiction
Publisher Macmillan & Scribner
Publication date 1971 (unofficially available from 1966)
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 137 pp (hardback edition) & 160 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-261-63337-6 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-7432-3041-8 (paperback edition)

Tarantula is an experimental novel by Bob Dylan, which he wrote between 1965 and 1966. It employs stream of consciousness writing, somewhat in the style of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. The first 50 copies were printed on A4 paper by the Albion underground press, San Francisco, in mid-1965. Although it was to be edited by Dylan and published in 1966, his motorcycle crash prevented this. It was not officially published until 1971.

One section of the book parodies the Leadbelly song "Black Betty".