Bob Dylan is bringing out a new book later this year about music and songwriters.

The Philosophy Of Song is a set of 60 essays by Dylan about artists including Elvis Costello, Hank Williams and Nina Simone.

To be published in November by Simon & Schuster, his first book for almost 20 years will be “mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny,” according to the advance publicity.

The publishers say that while the book is ostensibly about music it is really a meditation on the human condition. 

“Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence,” they add.

In a statement, Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp said: “The publication of Bob Dylan’s kaleidoscopically brilliant work will be an international celebration of songs by one of the greatest artists of our time. 

“The Philosophy Of Modern Song could only have been written by Bob Dylan. His voice is unique, and his work conveys his deep appreciation and understanding of songs, the people who bring those songs to life, and what songs mean to all of us.”

His previous books are the radically experimental Tarantula, published in 1971, and his 2004 memoir Chronicles: Part One.

Dylan was given the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, making him the first musician to receive the award.

He was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941. His parental grandparents were Ukrainian Jews who had emigrated to America from Odessa while his mother’s family were Lithuanian Jews.

He was raised in a Jewish household with Yiddish speaking grandparents, and a great-grandfather who would study the Talmud every afternoon.