Bob Dylan’s High School Poetry Added to MNHS Collections
These poetry pages date back to Dylan's days at Hibbing High School.
ST. PAUL, Minn – At first glance, your friend’s scribbled high school poetry might not seem worth saving. But when that friend was Robert Zimmerman — now known as iconic musician and Nobel Prize in Literature winner Bob Dylan — those pages take on a whole new meaning.
The Minnesota Historical Society recently acquired two handwritten pages of Dylan’s poetry, dating to about 1956, at auction. Saved by his Hibbing High School friend Dale Boutang, this artifact is Dylan’s earliest-known writing. The acquisition also includes an original photograph of Boutang and Dylan on a motorcycle from their high school days.
Bob Dylan and Dale Boutang.
Hibbing, MN circa 1956 (courtesy: MN Historical Society)
“The writing in these pages is fairly immature, but you can already see his ballad style that will develop later,” says Acquisitions Librarian Patrick Coleman, who acquired the work.
These new Dylan artifacts join other MNHS collections items related to the musician’s life, including a 1960 recording of Dylan playing in Minneapolis and handwritten lyrics to the song “Temporary Like Achilles.”
Minnesotans may already be familiar with these artifacts. They were part of the Museum of Pop Culture’s traveling exhibit “Bob Dylan’s American Journey, 1956-1966,” which visited the Weisman Art Museum in 2007.
The artifacts will also be digitized and made available to view on MNHS’ website.
The Minnesota Historical Society is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution established in 1849.
(courtesy: MN Historical Society)
(courtesy: MN Historical Society)
