A renowned Portuguese bookshop has purchased a series of private letters from a young Bob Dylan to a high school crush for close to 670,000 dollars (£564,000).
The record of 42 handwritten letters, totaling 150 pages, will be preserved by the Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal, which calls itself the “world’s most beautiful bookshop,” according to the auctioneer RR Auction in Boston, Massachusetts.
Between 1957 and 1959, Dylan, who was born and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, wrote the letters to Barbara Ann Hewitt while going by the name Bob Zimmerman. They shed light on a time in his life about which little is known.
Surprisingly, in several of the letters, Dylan discusses changing his name and aspiring to sell one million records. Years later, the now-81-year-old Dylan—who was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature—has sold roughly 125 million records.
The young musician also declares his love for Ms. Hewitt, extends an invitation to a Buddy Holly performance, incorporates brief passages of poetry, and talks about cars, clothes, and music.
As soon as her mother passed away in 2020, Ms. Hewitt’s daughter discovered the letters. Dylan’s handwriting appeared on the original envelopes, which were mailed to the Hewitt family’s new residence in the New Brighton neighbourhood of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
A number of other pieces of Dylan memorabilia were also sold at the auction, including one of the earliest known signed photographs of Dylan, which sold for more than £20,200, and a collection of 24 “Poems Without Titles” written when the singer-songwriter was a student at the University of Minnesota, which brought almost £210,000.