A torn page of lined paper bearing a draft of Bob Dylan's 1967 song I'm Not There has been discovered tucked inside a first-edition paperback of Allen Ginsberg's Ankor Wat. The lyrics are set to go under the hammer in April, with an estimate of between £20,000 and £40,000.
Dylan wrote and recorded more than 100 songs with The Band during the summer of 1967 near Woodstock, New York. I'm Not There was not officially released until 2007 as part of the soundtrack for Todd Haynes' biographical film of the same name, and is highly regarded among fans.
The book was a gift from Ginsberg to Sally Grossman, the wife of Dylan's former manager Albert Grossman and a close friend of the singer. Grossman appears on the cover of Dylan's 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The lyrics likely fell out when a seller was leafing through the book, part of Grossman's estate sold after her death in 2021.
Omega Auctions described the find as “an extremely rare working lyric draft of what is regarded as one of Dylan’s greatest pieces of songwriting.” In 2025, two typewritten drafts of Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man sold for over £400,000 in Nashville.
Other music memorabilia in the April sale includes Michael Jackson's handwritten lyrics for Black or White and an archive related to Radiohead's album OK Computer.
