‘Extremely rare’ Bob Dylan draft lyrics discovered inside Allen Ginsberg book | Bob Dylan

Almost 60 years after it was first typed out by Bob Dylan, a torn page of lined paper bearing a draft for the lyrics of I’m Not There has been discovered, tucked inside an Allen Ginsberg paperback.

During the summer of 1967 in New York, just outside Woodstock, Bob Dylan wrote and recorded more than 100 songs with his then-backing group The Band, including I’m Not There. A small collection of these tapes would be released eight years later by Columbia Records, while more songs, including I’m Not There, would only be released over the following decades.

I’m Not There was finally released as part of the soundtrack for Todd Haynes’ 2007 Dylan film of the same name, and the track is held in high esteem among many Dylan fans.

A draft of the track’s lyrics was recently discovered inside a first-edition paperback of Allen Ginsberg’s Ankor Wat once owned by Sally Grossman, the wife of Dylan’s first manager, Albert Grossman, and a close friend of the singer. She appears with Dylan on the cover of his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home.

The page of lyrics is set to go under the hammer in April. It is estimated it will fetch between £20,000 and £40,000 (US$26,400-$52,800) at auction.

“After discussions with notable Dylan collectors, it is believed that this is an extremely rare working lyric draft of what is regarded as one of Dylan’s greatest pieces of songwriting,” Omega Auctions wrote in the item’s description.

The book was gifted to Sally Grossman by Ginsberg himself in 1969 and is part of her estate that was sold to a book dealer after her death in 2021. It is likely the lyrics had remained nestled in the book undetected for years, with Omega Auctions saying they fell out while the seller was leafing through the book.

In 2025, two typewritten drafts for Dylan’s 1965 hit Mr Tambourine Man sold for US$508,000 (£417,000) at auction in Nashville. They were among 60 items up for sale in a dedicated Dylan auction from the personal collection of music journalist Al Aronowitz, who famously introduced Dylan to the Beatles in 1964.

Among Dylan’s drafted lyrics, other music memorabilia also set to be sold in April includes Michael Jackson’s handwritten lyrics for Black or White and an archive relating to the development of the Radiohead album OK Computer.