NEW YORK - A collection of poems written by legendary rock poet Bob Dylan as a student at the University of Minnesota in 1960 sold for US$78,000 in a Rock & Pop Memorabilia auction at Christie's.
The 16 pages of poems hand-written in pencil formed the earliest Dylan manuscript everoffered for auction and it fetched the highest auction price to date for the acclaimed songwriter, according to Christie's.
A title page was inscribed in blue ink "Poems Without Titles," with the majority of the poems signed Dylan or Dylanism.
The poetry was acquired by an unidentified private European interest.
Dylan arrived at the college in 1959 as freshman Robert Zimmerman from upstate Hibbing and left at the end of 1960 as folk singer and songwriter Bob Dylan, headed to make his mark on the folk scene in New York's Greenwich Village.
The second-highest priced item in the sale that grossed $661,536 was Eric Clapton's Fender composite Stratocaster electric guitar, circa 1959, which sold for $36,000.
