Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2014 Issue

Manuscripts for a Pair of Early Unrecorded Bob Dylan Songs to be Sold at Christie's on December 4

Izzy Young is still at it at his Folklore Centrum in Stockholm.

A pair of unrecorded songs written by Bob Dylan shortly before he turned from unknown struggling Greenwich Village artist to the spokesman for a generation are being offered for sale at Christie's New York on December 4. Offered are original manuscripts/typescripts annotated by the young Dylan. They were given to the legendary Village bookstore owner Israel “Izzy” Young. Young was to a generation of new artists in the late 1950's and early 1960's what those artists became for the rest of us a few years later. He was their mentor. Young, now 86, carries on in Stockholm, Sweden to this day, but as back then, he is still short of money. Hence, he is selling these symbols of a generation over 50 years after they were given to him by Dylan.

 

We thank John Schulman of the Caliban Bookshop in Pittsburgh for some background. Schulman, a lover of folk music, visited Young in Stockholm this summer and helped get these manuscripts to Christie's. He reports that Izzy, who was described by Dylan in his autobiography as having “a voice like a bulldozer,” hasn't changed in the 40-plus years since he moved from New York. As always, he teeters on the edge of financial catastrophe, somehow carrying on despite a world that has never quite recognized or rewarded him as it should.

 

In 1961, Dylan first walked into Izzy's bookstore. Young described Dylan as intense and quiet, someone who inhaled the radical and musical books on his shelves. Dylan wrote of Young, “To him, folk music glittered like a mound of gold. It did for me, too.” One suspects that for Young, the “gold” of folk music might have had more of a financial tinge than it it did to Dylan, but no matter. Unlike Dylan, Young never became rich from it, though he devoted his life to its promotion.

 

Young was so impressed by Dylan's work that he promoted a concert by the still unknown folksinger, at Carnegie Hall, no less. A couple of years later, you would have had to pay a scalper a fortune to obtain tickets to such a performance. In November of 1961, only 53 people came. The price was $2. Dylan made $10 from the show. This is how greatness begins.

 

One of the two songs is a tribute to Young's bookstore. Among the lyrics to Talking Blues, later published as Talkin Folklore Center, are these:

 

“You get a bumper and I'll get a fender

We'll go down to the Folklore Center

You get a daft and I'll get dizzy

We'll go down to see old Izzy

What did the fly say to the flea

Folklore Center is the place for me.”

 

Young had the lyrics printed up as a broadside. The original manuscript is signed, “Bob Dylan '62 of Gallup, Phillipsburg, Navasota Springs, Sioux Falls and Duluth.” There is also a typescript.

 

The other song is a typescript, annotated by Dylan (and Young) for the song Go Away You Bomb. From the following year, 1963, it is unpublished. Young told Dylan he was looking for lyrics for a book of anti-nuclear war songs. Dylan returned the following day with this 29-word composition. It was in May of this same year that Dylan released the album Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, containing such songs as Blowin' in the Wind and A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall. Dylan would forever be the voice of his generation.

 

The manuscript and typescript for Talking Blues has been estimated by Christie's at $40,000-$60,000. The typescript for Go Away You Bomb is estimated at $30,000-$50,000.

 

Here are links to view the lot descriptions:

 

Talking Blues

 

Go Away You Bomb

 

Here is a link to an earlier article about Izzy, Dylan, and the Folklore Center by AE Monthly writer Susan Halas, who worked at the Folklore Center during the early 1960's: www.americanaexchange.com/articles/1189


Posted On: 2014-12-01 11:24
User Name: calibanbooks

Thanks for posting about this and for bringing my attention to Susan Halas's article. Hope those Dylan pieces sell so that Izzy can remain in business! -- John Schulman


Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD
  • Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 2:
    John Ford Clymer, U.S. Troops' Triumphant Return to New York Harbor, oil on canvas, circa 1944.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 44:
    Edward Gorey, Illustration of cover and spine for Fonthill, a Comedy by Aubrey Menen, pen and ink, 1973.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 50:
    Harrison Cady, frontispiece for Buster Bear's Twins by Thornton W. Burgess, watercolor and ink, 1921.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 54:
    Ludwig Bemelmans, Pepito, portrait of Pepito from the Madeline book series, mixed media.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 79:
    Gluyas Williams, Fellow Citizens Observation Platform, pen and ink, cartoon published in The New Yorker, March 11, 1933.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 86:
    Thomas Nast, Victory, – for the moment, political cartoon, pen and ink, 1884.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 91:
    Mischa Richter, Lot of 10 cartoons for Field Publications, ink and pencil, circa 1940.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 111:
    Arthur Getz, Sledding In Central Park, casein tempera on canvas, cover of The New Yorker, February 26, 1955.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 124:
    Richard Erdoes, Map of Boston, illustration for unknown children's magazine, gouache on board, circa 1960.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 155:
    Robert Fawcett, The old man looked him over carefully, gouache on board, published in The Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1945.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 170:
    Violet Oakley, Portrait of Woodrow Wilson, charcoal and pastel, circa 1918.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 188:
    Robert J. Wildhack, Scribner's for March, 1907, mixed media.
  • CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions