Bob Dylan has a Nobel Prize, Aretha Franklin got a Pulitzer. So it’s only right that Paul Simon is feted by a literary organization.

Simon will receive a special award on May 16th from PEN America– and rightly so. He’s getting the the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award in the annual gala at the blue whale room at the Museum of Natural History.

Simon will join an illustrious group of past literary honorees including President Barack Obama and Ava DuVernay and PEN/Barbey Literary Service Award recipients Margaret Atwood, Bob Woodward, Stephen King, Patti Smith, the late Toni Morrison and Stephen Sondheim, Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Zadie Smith and last year, Saturday Night Live (SNL) creator, writer and executive producer Lorne Michaels.

Simon’s music for the last 60 years remains popular and legendary. But his writing– the lyrics — are, I think, masterpieces that are the equivalent of great poetry and novels. It’s very cool that PEN feels that way, too. If he just got it for “The Sound of Silence” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” that would be sufficient. But the whole catalog deserves it.

PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said: “Paul Simon has inspired fans worldwide with lyrics and songs that entire generations know by heart and can recognize from the very first notes. His fascination with different cultures, traditions and rhythms have helped open our ears and minds to essential musical traditions. We are elated to pay tribute to this unparalleled creative artist whose music, along with his commitment to humane values and humanitarian causes, has made him a cultural icon.”

If you were a young couple just starting out in the early 60s –like my parents, or the fictional Maisels — Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were your rock stars. They represented the thrill of the Kennedys in the White House and everything fresh and optimistic in the post-war boom.

Now Steve Lawrence has passed away at age 88. His wife, Eydie, died several years ago. But with Steve gone, it’s the end of an era. And they would know what that was like. Back when Frank Sinatra was failing, he depended on doing shows with the married duo, and they kept him going.

Steve and Eydie started on Broadway in1 1957 — he got a Tony nomination for “What Makes Sammy Run?” They were catapulted onto TV with Steve Allen on the Tonight show at a time when there were three channels and one show after the news. Imagine the intense spotlight of that moment.

In years to come, the couple starred in Las Vegas and on tour. They were loosely connected to Sinatra’s Rat Pack. They appeared on prime time TV constantly, particularly Ed Sullivan. They became so ubiquitous as a singing couple that a decade later fans snarked that Paul and Linda McCartney were the Steve and Eydie of their day. A lot of the couple’s appeal had to do with being G rated and comforting as Elvis and rock and roll was taking over. They extended that theme through the 60s, with Steve especially appearing on dozens of family fare shows like Here’s Lucy, The Carol Burnett Show, and The Nanny.

Steve had hits, too, like “Go Away Little Girl,” which was as big in its day as a Justin Bieber song. (Eydie had hers, too like “Blame it on the Bossa Nova.”)

Condolences to their family, friends, and fans.