Credit: Douglas R. Gilbert

Bob Dylan’s love letters go up for auction

Wed 16 November 2022 9:52, UK

A collection of 42 lyrics, poems and love letters written by a teenage Bob Dylan to his high school sweetheart, Barbara Ann Hewitt, are due to go up for auction, with bids starting from $250,000. The letters were written to Barbara Ann Hewitt between 1958 and 1959, when Dylan was 17 or 18 years old and living in Hibbing, Minnesota.

These remarkable letters shed light on a much-mythologised part of Robert Zimmerman’s young life. In one, the ambitious young musician asks Hewitt, who he met in their shared history class, whether she thinks he should change his name, floating suggestions like ‘Little Willie’ and ‘Elston’. Elsewhere, he talks about appearing on American Bandstand and discusses his desire to sell a million records one day.

RR Auction’s description of the lot reads: “Wide-ranging in scope and content, the young Dylan reveals his dreams of changing his name and selling a million records, offers bits and pieces of poetry, and professes his never-ending affection. He prepares for the Hibbing High talent show; invites Barbara to the Buddy Holly show in Duluth; speaks of singing, songwriting, and recording; comments on the cars and clothing of the late 1950s; and writes on the records he’s listening to.”

Each letter is contained within its original mailing envelope, almost all of which are signed “Bob”. In the past, individual handwritten letters by Bob Dylan have sold for $20,000-30,000. However, the trustees of Hewitt’s estate wish to keep this incredible archive together. The letters will therefore be sold as one lot. Other items originating from the Hewitt estate include several photos and a couple of early drawings.

The letters were found by Hewitt’s daughter after her mother passed away. She told RR Auctions that, at the height of his fame in the 1960s, Dylan called up Hewitt and invited her to one of his shows in California. She declined. RR Auctions vice president Bobby Livingston has suggested that the red-haired Hewitt may have inspired some of Dylan’s best-known songs, including 1975’s ‘Tangled Up In Blue’, which features the line: “Early one morning, the sun was shining / I was laying in bed / Wondering if she’d changed it all / If her hair was still red.”

“This archive is one of the most culturally important of the 20th century we have ever offered,” Livingston says. “It shows that Dylan dreamed all this up, and it all came true. He foresaw it.”