Last Friday, May 17, a preeminent global auction house and dealer specializing in manuscripts and rare documents, Lion Heart Autographs, announced their upcoming auction: "Pen on Paper: Autographs of Genius featuring Bob Dylan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Einstein, Freud, Brahms, Monet & Stieglitz."
The online sale will take place this coming June 5 and is headlined by two previously obscured pages of unpublished lyrics written by Dylan in New York around the 1980s in their first-ever appearance at an auction.
About the Unseen Bob Dylan Lyrics
Considered one of the 20th Century's most influential artists, Dylan reshaped popular music to become the voice of his generation. His poetic lyricism has been appreciated by millions worldwide and acknowledged at the highest level when he was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature.
This remarkable set of lyrics exemplifies Dylan's extraordinary artistry, both of which contain numerous references to the Bible and were written in ballpoint pen on two sheets of a New York City Ritz Carlton Hotel telephone message pad.
This also marks the first time this kind of significant and fascinating cultural memorabilia has been offered for sale. As for their contents, an excerpt of the first page of the lyrics reads:
"Those who deal treacherously with the Lord beget strange children
You teach us lies and give us the rusty punk bread -
of rotteness [sic.], You give us drugs-
but our religion is of the heart, our"
Consistent with his other works like "God Knows," "Nettie Moore" and "Things Have Changed," Dylan also draws on Biblical themes and religious imagery in this set of lyrics. Specifically, he references the Old Testament Book of Hosea 7:11 and Hosea 5:7, referring to strange children.
According to Margaret Daniel -- a New School University professor and researcher at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa -- the rare manuscript pages were likely dated around the early 1980s when he was working on his album: "Infidels."
Both documents are in excellent condition and are accompanied by PSA/DNA letters of authenticity along with Lion Heart Autographs' own certificates of authenticity.
For more information on the Bob Dylan lots, and other manuscript offerings at the upcoming "Pen on Paper" auction, click here.
