March 2017 | Rebecca Rego Barry

Early Bob Dylan Poetry Manuscript Heads to Auction

Bob Dylan manuscripts have trickled into the market in recent years--the pinnacle at auction being the original handwritten lyrics to "Like a Rolling Stone," which sold for $2 million at Sotheby's in 2014--and now that he has won the Nobel Prize in literature, that seems unlikely to change.   

Screen Shot 2017-03-20 at 10.17.16 AM.pngCase in point: Coming up at Bonhams New York next week is an early, two-page manuscript of the legendary musician. Written in pencil, this manuscript was originally in the possession of Dylan's Hibbing High School friend, Dale Boutang, and indeed the two poems describe the antics of teenage life in the mid-1950s; one is labeled a "Good Poem," the other a "Bad Poem." With the manuscript comes a silver gelatin print of a young Dylan seated on a motorcyle with a friend (Boutang?) standing alongside.

Last seen at auction eleven years ago, the manuscript is estimated to reach $10,000-15,000.

Image courtesy of Bonhams.