A rare draft of Bob Dylan’s lyrics for his 1967 song I’m Not There has been discovered tucked inside a paperback copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Ankor Wat. The torn page of lined paper is expected to fetch between £20,000 and £40,000 when it goes under the hammer in April.
The book was owned by Sally Grossman, the wife of Dylan’s first manager, Albert Grossman, and a close friend of the singer. It was given to her by Ginsberg himself in 1969 and remained in her estate until her death in 2021. The lyrics likely fell out when a seller was leafing through the book, remaining undetected for decades.
Dylan wrote and recorded I’m Not There during the summer of 1967 in Woodstock with The Band. It was not officially released until 2007 as part of the soundtrack to Todd Haynes’ film of the same name. Omega Auctions described the draft as “an extremely rare working lyric draft of what is regarded as one of Dylan’s greatest pieces of songwriting.”
The auction, scheduled for April, will also include other music memorabilia, such as Michael Jackson’s handwritten lyrics for Black or White and an archive related to Radiohead’s OK Computer. In 2025, two drafts of Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man sold for $508,000 (£417,000) in Nashville.
