A remarkable collection of love letters, written by a teenage Bob Dylan, have been sold for $669,875 at RR Auction in the USA.
The lot consisted of 42 love letters written by the then Robert Zimmerman to his childhood sweetheart Barbara Ann Hewitt, whom he dated between 1957 and 1959.
The letters includ pieces of poetry, and Zimmerman's dreams of changing his name to Little Willie, along with his comments on cars and clothing, talent shows and his dreams of selling a million records.
Many are signed by Elson Gunn, another of Dylan's pseudonyms at the time.
Remarkably all 42 love letters were accompanied by their original mailing envelopes, with the majority of these signed "Bob".
The collection of love letters had been consigned for sale by Mrs Hewitt's daughter after she had found them when her mother passed away, and had been expected to sell for $250,000.
The collection of letters was deemed important as they are the first known writings from 1957 - 1959 credited to Bob Dylan.
The letters, which total 150 pages, were purchased by The Livraria Lello, who intend to display the letters to the public in their self styled 'most beautiful bookshop in the world' in Porto, Portugal.
By our reckoning, at $669,875, the love letters become the third most valuable piece of Bob Dylan memorabilia ever sold at auction, behind Dylan's handwritten draft lyrics to 'Like a rolling stone' which sold for $2,045,000 at Sotheby's in June 2014, and his Fender stratocaster guitar played at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, which sold for $965,000 at Christie's in 2013.
About your Author:
Adrian Roose has over 30 years’ experience covering all aspects of the rare stamp & memorabilia industry during which he has sold over £50m of unique items, helping build collections for Royalty, household name celebrities and 1,000s of collectors around the world.
Adrian was previously a Director at Stanley Gibbons, a Board Member of Stampex, and Executive Director of Paul Fraser Collectibles, PFC Auctions and JustCollecting, prior to founding The Memorabilia Club.