Rare Bob Dylan Draft Lyrics Found Stuck in a Friend's Book

Typewritten version of 'I'm Not There' was in an Allen Ginsberg book owned by his manager's wife
Posted Mar 31, 2026 10:49 AM CDT
Rare Bob Dylan Draft Lyrics Found Stuck in a Friend's Book
Bob Dylan.   (YouTube)

A long-forgotten scrap of Bob Dylan history just fell out of a beat poet's book. A torn, lined sheet bearing a working draft of Dylan's song "I'm Not There" has been found tucked inside a first-edition copy of Allen Ginsberg's "Angkor Wat," auction house Omega Auctions says. The paperback once belonged to Sally Grossman, wife of Dylan's early manager Albert Grossman and a close friend who appears with him on the cover of 1965's Bringing It All Back Home. Ginsberg inscribed the book to her in 1969; the lyric page apparently sat undisturbed inside until a bookseller leafed through it, reports the Guardian.

The 1967 draft, believed by Dylan experts to be an "extremely rare" work-in-progress for a fan-favorite track, goes on auction in April with an estimate of between $26,400 and $52,800. It's part of a broader sale that also includes Michael Jackson's handwritten "Black or White" lyrics and material tied to Radiohead's OK Computer—arriving after typewritten "Mr. Tambourine Man" drafts fetched more than $500,000 last year. Meanwhile, American Songwriter notes that Dylan's draft lyrics were often just that—and runs through three hits he completely reworked after their release.

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