Bob Dylan: unreleased song discovered inside a book by Allen Ginsberg

A discovery described as "extremely rare" has brought back to light a fragment of contemporary music history. In London, a bookseller found a typewritten page, torn out and hidden inside a volume, containing an early draft of the lyrics to "I'm Not There," a song written by Bob Dylan in the late 1960s.

The sheet, dated summer 1967, was tucked away between the pages of "Ankor Wat", a collection of poetry by Allen Ginsberg. It's a first edition that once belonged to Sally Grossman, a central figure in Dylan's entourage and wife of manager Albert Grossman. According to The Guardian's account, the book was given away by Ginsberg in 1969, and the document remained hidden for decades until it was stumbled upon by chance during a routine check.

The draft relates to one of the most elusive compositions from Dylan's Woodstock period, recorded in 1967 alongside The Band. "I'm Not There" stayed out of the official catalogue for a long time, circulating only in incomplete form through bootleg recordings, until it finally surfaced in 2007 on the soundtrack of the film of the same name directed by Todd Haynes.

The document will go under the hammer in the UK on 21 April, handled by Omega Auctions, with an estimate between £20,000 and £40,000. Specialists regard it as a significant testament to the compositional method of Dylan, a key figure in contemporary songwriting.

The same auction will also feature other notable items, including handwritten lyrics for "Black Or White" by Michael Jackson and documents tied to the making of "OK Computer" by Radiohead.

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