Robert Shelton's most enduring claim to fame was that he launched the career of a then-unknown twenty-year-old folk singer named Bob Dylan. Dylan was performing at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village the ne-plus-ultra of New York City folk venues opening for a bluegrass act called the Greenbriar Boys. Shelton's positive review brought intense critical attention to Dylan followed by a Columbia recording contract and a Peter Paul & Mary cover of Blowin' in the Wind.
Shelton was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, He served in US Army in France in 1944-45 and then attended the School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He moved to New York in the 1950s, joining the staff of the New York Times not long after. For a decade from 1958 to 1968, Shelton reviewed music in particular folk music, but also pop and country becoming a good friend of many of the artists and extending his influence beyond the pages of the Times. (His other work included writing the programs at the Newport Folk Festival.)
Shelton spent decades writing and rewriting his Dylan opus, "No Direction Home", published in 1986. Other books include "Electric Muse: The Story Of Folk Into Rock" and "The Face of Folk Music".
In 1982 Shelton moved to Brighton, England, where he wrote for a number of publications mostly about film up to the time of his death.